The Fighting 29th

All about New York's 29th Congressional District

As far as I know, today's only Kuhl statement on the bailout was made to WENY:

“We've got to be protective of the taxpayer. It will not get my support if it's just a bailout,” said Republican congressman Randy Kuhl.

WETM is reporting that the Kuhl campaign has declined its invitation to debate Eric Massa next month. Negotiations broke down because the Kuhl campaign wanted the debate to take place with no audience, or a limited audience.

The DCCC has released a web ad which criticizes Randy Kuhl's support of a grant loan guarantee for a Canandaigua bowling alley. It's embedded below:

The Massa campaign has released a new ad. Its focus is the 40,000 jobs lost by the "Bush-Kuhl" trade policies. It's embedded below:

WENY has a story on the bailout. Neither Kuhl nor Massa are happy about the proposal. Kuhl says he'll have his version of a bailout bill out tomorrow.

In some non-bailout news, reader Tom sends this Messenger-Post story on Massa's Agriculture plan.

Reader Vincent sends the text [pdf] of the Senate version of the bailout. Senator Chris Dodd is the chairman of the Finance Committee, where this bill originated.

The media seems to be focusing on the Democrats' demands for executive pay limits, but the real news as far as I can tell is that the Dodd bill requires banks to provide "contingent shares" in return for the Treasury buying their mortgage-backed securities. Those contingent shares are activated if the Treasury sells the securities acquired at a loss.

In other words, taxpayers get something for their money. That's huge.

The Massa campaign is having a press conference that I can't attend today. The economic plan [pdf] that will be discussed there has been posted. Massa proposes the regulation of derivatives, that mortgage lenders retain a 25% stake in mortgages they originate, more stringent federal licensing of mortgage brokers, reinstating the uptick rule on short sells, and bringing back the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC).

The proposed bailout does a simple thing: it authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to buy $700 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities at a price he sets. The bill is being peddled as the only solution for a crisis that may bring down our financial system.

I agree that the crisis may bring down our financial system. I think we all need to be skeptical about the idea that this is the only fix.

Massa Drills Kuhl Over Energy Bill Vote, from the Olean Times-Herald.

Read the whole thing, but don't miss these highlights:

Sec. 6. Maximum Amount of Authorized Purchases.

The Secretary’s authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time

Sec. 8. Review.

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.

This act makes Hank Paulson the $700 billion King of Wall Street.