Bailout Battle Leans Towards Congressional Dems

"Heckuva Job Hank" Paulson and the White House appear to be facing an uphill battle as several high ranking Democrats stepped up their opposition today to Paulson's $700 billion plan, which called for scant additional oversight added to the financial markets or Paulson himself. In short, they wish to continue down the same unregulated, non-supervised road that they took to drive us into this current mess.Section 8 of the plan reads:

"Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency."

House Financial Services Committee Chair Barney Frank, was one of the first out of the gates, telling ABC's Good Morning America: "I trust Hank Paulson. But I don't trust anybody to have the amount of power he asked for in the bill he sent us." Senate Banking Committee Chair Chris Dodd warned that this bill would "turn $700 billion over virtually to one individual."

Barney Frank: 'bad decisions' made


Chris Dodd: "quickly, but carefully"


"The Treasury is not in a take-it-or-leave-it position with Congress," said Robert Shapiro, president of Sonecon and the undersecretary of commerce during the Clinton White House. "The Treasury and Fed's mismanagement over the last two years helped bring up this brink, and they and a president with 30 percent approval are not in a position to dictate terms."