House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that President Bush isn't doing enough to provide Wall Street, struggling with investment banks failures, with the confidence it needs.
"What we really need now is confidence, and confidence is hard to come by at a time when there's so much bad news emerging from our financial markets," Pelosi said at a news ocnference Thursday. "What we have now is a man-made disaster, a disaster that sprang -- comes from the Bush failed policies, the failure of the Bush administrations to steward our economy in a responsible way."
She noted the brevity of Bush's statement Thursday, which she said did little to explain the situation to Americans and allay their economic fears.
"We wondered if he was ever going to come out of hiding on this subject," Pelosi said. "He came out in one minute and said very little."
Pelosi also said that GOP presidential nominee John McCain, like Bush, lacks credibility when it comes to talking about the economy. McCain has talked about more regulation of the finance sector, even though he boasted about supporting deregulation in the past, Pelosi noted.
"How else could John McCain, in the midst of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression, tell the American people the fundamentals of our economy are strong?" she said.
Pelosi pushed back against suggestions that Conrgress wouldn't do anything about the crisis until next year. She said that House committees would begin hearings on the bailout decisions made by Fed Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and on the impact of the $85 billion federal rescue loan to insurance giant AIG .
Pelosi also wondered where that money will come from and asked whether other countries, whose companies also do business with the insurance firm, could help pay for the loan.
"One of the reasons why they had to bail out AIG was because of foreign banks, and both Europe and Asia were saying that they had such a stake in AIG in their own countries. Well, where are they?," she said. "Why are they not participating in this bailout?"
Florida Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R) is accusing Barack Obama of pushing a "lie" on John McCain's immigration record.
"It is offensive and dishonest for Barack Obama to lie about John McCain's record on immigration and years of support for the Hispanic community, when it was Barack Obama himself who voted for 'poison pill' amendments that killed the effort at immigration reform," Diaz-Balart said.
"Instead of making false ads with baseless attacks, Barack Obama should be apologizing to the Latino community."
Here is the ad the Florida Republican is referring to:
Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) won his primary race against Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell last night by a margin of 304 votes, the AP is reporting.
Young had finished 239 votes ahead of Parnell in the state's GOP primary earlier this month. The 18-term congressman held onto his lead over Gov. Sarah Palin's (R) second in command as absentee ballots were counted in the following weeks.
Young's primary victory could prove a boon for Democrats, as their candidate, former House Minority Leader Ethan Berkowitz, has led Young in polls while trailing Parnell.
President Bush, in brief remarks Thursday about the growing worries on Wall Street, said that he shares American's concerns about the economy.
Bush said that his administration is keeping a close watch on the markets, noting the steps that the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Bank have taken. But he refrained from laying out what the government will do next.
Read his full remarks below:
The American people are concerned about the situation in our financial markets and our economy, and I share their concerns.
I've canceled my travel today to stay in Washington where I'll continue to closely monitor the situation in our financial markets and consult with my economic advisers. Spoke to Secretary Paulson this morning, and I will meet with him later on today.
In recent weeks, the federal government has taken extraordinary measures to address the challenges confronting our financial markets. We've taken control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the home finance agencies, to help promote market stability and to ensure they can continue to play a role in helping our housing market recover.
This week the Federal Reserve acted to prevent the disorderly failure of the insurance company AIG, a development that could have caused a severe disruption in our financial markets and threatened other sectors of the economy.
Yesterday, the Security (sic) and Exchange Commission took action to strengthen investor protections and step up its enforcement actions against illegal market manipulation.
Last night, the Federal Reserve, in coordination with central banks around the world, took a substantial step to provide additional liquidity to the U.S. financial system.
These actions are necessary and they're important, and the markets are adjusting to them.
Our financial markets continue to deal with serious challenges.
As our recent actions demonstrate, my administration is focused on meeting these challenges. The American people can be sure we will continue to act to strengthen and stabilize our financial markets and improve investor confidence.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) said that actress Tina Fey nailed her Saturday Night Live impersonation of the GOP veep nominee.
"I watched it with the volume all the way down," Palin told Reuters. "I thought it was hilarious."
Palin added that she "didn't hear a word she said but the visual (was) spot on."
Palin said that people in Alaska have noticed a resemblance between her and Fey "for years." Both of them have brown hair and are known for their snazzy glasses.
"In fact, I dressed up as Tina Fey once for Halloween," Palin said. "So we've been doing that before Tina Fey has been doing that."
Barack Obama and his running mate, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), have taken different tacks when it comes to calling out John McCain for untruthful attacks.
When Obama was asked Wednesday by the Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal whether he thought McCain was lying to voters, the Democratic presidential nominee wouldn't answer the question directly.
"I think there are advertisements that the McCain campaign has put out, presumably with his knowledge, that are patently wrong," Obama said. "When he asserts I am going to raise taxes on the middle class, when every objective analysis says I provide much more tax relief to the middle class than John Mcain does, that
Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel isn't impressed by fellow Republican John McCain's pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) as his running mate, calling attempts to make her seem more qualified than she is "insulting to the American people."
"I think they ought to be just honest about it and stop the nonsense about, 'I look out my window and I see Russia and so therefore I know something about Russia,'" Hagel said in an interview with the Omaha World-Herald. "That kind of thing is insulting to the American people."
"She doesn't have any foreign policy credentials," the Nebraska Republican added. "You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything."
"I think it's a stretch to, in any way, to say that she's got the experience to be president of the United States."
The Senate Banking Committee scrapped a highly anticipated hearing scheduled for Thursday with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
That marks the second time in a week Paulson's appearance has been cancelled.
The committee declined to say why Thursday's hearing was put off. Paulson irked Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) by cancelling a Tuesday appearance. Lawmakers are eager to press the secretary about the government's unprecedented efforts to stabilize Wall Street.
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