House Republicans Aren't On Board

It's a very fluid situation in Washington as John McCain, Barack Obama, and the bipartisan Congressional leadership meet at the White House with President Bush. But despite optimistic signs out of the Senate, I'm sensing that it's still a tough sell with House Republicans.

A House Republican who has been involved in the negotiations says the votes aren't there, and he and others are pushing a plan that would be less of a bailout and more of an insurance guarantee for the banks. The idea is to have the government come in and help insure the assets rather than buy them outright. Whether that's intellectually feasible and would actually calm the markets or could be sold to Treasury and the rest of Congress is unclear.

So far, according to this Republican, Treasury studied the House G.O.P. proposal and balked at it. But the member kept insisting that the votes are not there on the House G.O.P. side--especially with Nancy Pelosi's proviso that she won't bring up a package unless a majority of Republicans are for it. This Republican, though, understood that something had to be done by the time the markets open on Monday.

Matt Cooper

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