WASHINGTON — After one spectacular failure, the $700 billion financial industry bailout found a second life Wednesday, winning lopsided passage in the Senate and gaining ground in the House, where Republicans opposition softened.
Senators loaded the economic rescue bill with tax breaks and other sweeteners before passing it by a wide margin, 74-25, a month before the presidential and congressional elections.
In the House, leaders were working feverishly to convert enough opponents of the bill to push it through by Friday, just days after lawmakers there stunningly rejected an earlier version and sent markets plunging around the globe.
The measure didn’t cause the same uproar in the Senate, where both parties’ presidential candidates, Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, made rare appearances to cast “aye” votes, as did Obama’s running mate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware.
In the final vote, 39 Democrats, 34 Republicans and independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut voted “yes.” Nine Democrats, 15 Republicans and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont voted “no.”
President Bush issued a statement praising the Senate’s move. With the revisions, Bush said, “I believe members of both parties in the House can support this legislation.”
The rescue package lets the government spend billions of dollars to buy bad mortgage-related securities and other devalued assets held by troubled financial institutions. If successful, advocates say, that would allow frozen credit to begin flowing again and prevent a deep recession.
Even as the Senate voted, House leaders were hunting for the 12 votes they would need to turn around Monday’s 228-205 defeat. They were especially targeting the 133 Republicans who voted “no.”
Their opposition appeared to be easing after the Senate added $110 billion in tax breaks for businesses and the middle class, plus a provision to raise, from $100,000 to $250,000, the cap on federal deposit insurance.
They were also cheering a decision Tuesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission to ease rules that force companies to devalue assets on their balance sheets to reflect the price they can get on the market.
There were worries, though, that the tax breaks would cause some conservative-leaning “Blue Dog” Democrats who voted for the rescue Monday to abandon it. The bill doesn’t designate a way to pay for many of the tax cuts, and Blue Dogs typically oppose any measure that swells the deficit.
“I’m concerned about that,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the majority leader.
Raising the deposit insurance limit — along with the SEC’s accounting change — helped House Republicans claim credit for some substantive changes. And with constituent feedback changing dramatically since Monday’s House defeat and the corresponding market plunge, lawmakers’ comfort level with the package increased markedly.
Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., who voted “no” Monday, said he was leaning toward switching. Several others were weighing a flip, Republican officials said.
Leaders in both parties, as well as private economic chiefs everywhere, said Congress must quickly approve some version of the bailout measure to start loans flowing and stave off a potential national economic disaster.
“This is what we need to do right now to prevent the possibility of a crisis turning into a catastrophe,” Obama said on the Senate floor. In Missouri, before flying to Washington to vote, McCain said, “If we fail to act, the gears of our economy will grind to a halt.”
Critics on the right and left assailed the rescue plan, which has been panned by their constituents as a giveaway for Wall Street, and has little obvious direct benefit for ordinary Americans.
The consequences of the financial meltdown now are sinking in with ordinary Americans, who worry whether their jobs, home values, children’s futures and retirement plans are at risk, according to a poll out Wednesday.
Eight in 10 fear the crisis will affect them directly, according to an AP-GfK poll. Yet 45 percent of all adults still opposed the proposed government bailout.
About 38 percent were in favor of the $700 billion financial-market rescue plan and 16 percent were not sure in the poll, which was conducted Saturday through Tuesday.
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