economy

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnellIn Washington with his colleagues in the U.S. Senate, Mitch McConnell (R-Louisville) said today that some steps forward were being made in negotiations over the "economic recovery" proposals under consideration.

"Members from all sides of the aisle continue to talk," said McConnell, the Senate Minority leader, in a statement released today. "There was constructive progress among some members of the Banking Committee and we will review these and other ideas with the Congressional Leadership, the Secretary of the Treasury, the President and the two Presidential candidates."

Yesterday, on the Senate floor, McConnell said action on the economy "needs to put Main Street ahead of Wall Street," announcing his support for limiting compensation for executives employed at companies asking for government assistance. McConnell also asked that proceeds from the government sale of any business assets required be used to reduce the national debt while requesting greater transparency and "taxpayer protection" from any potential fraud in the package.

In the same remarks on the floor, McConnell praised the decision by U.S. Sen. John McCain to suspend his presidential campaign to work on the economic package, calling it "an outsanding idea."

With the U.S. Treasury proposing to invest at least hundreds of billions of dollars to prop up the nation's faltering financial system, U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Southgate) amped up his oppositional rhetoric to the latest in a string of government bailouts of failing financial institutions by today declaring the free market system was "dead."

"Instead of celebrating the Fourth of July next year Americans will be celebrating Bastille Day; the free market for all intensive purposes is dead in America," said Bunning in a statement, referencing the French day of independence. "The action proposed today by the Treasury Department will take away the free market and institute socialism in America. The American taxpayer has been mislead throughout this economic crisis. The government on all fronts has failed the American people miserably.

The proposed bailout announced today by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson comes amid heightening concern about the stability of the nation's financial infrastructure after high-profile collapses at firms such as Lehman Brothers, AIG, and mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.