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Republicans fault Pelosi speech for bailout’s failure |
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By Klaus Marre
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Posted: 09/29/08 02:49 PM [ET] |
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House Republicans on Monday blamed a partisan speech from Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the failure of a massive Wall Street bailout measure. “I do believe that we could have gotten there today had it not been for this partisan speech that the speaker gave on the floor of the House,” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said, adding that Pelosi “poisoned” the GOP conference. Deputy Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) held up a copy of Pelosi’s floor speech at a press conference and said she had “failed to listen and to lead” on the issue. The Speaker had blasted the Bush administration in her speech and Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) asserted that some GOP lawmakers, who had reluctantly agreed to support the bill, might have changed their minds following Pelosi’s remarks. Pelosi had said that the $700 billion price tag of the measure “is a number that is staggering, but tells us only the costs of the Bush Administration’s failed economic policies — policies built on budgetary recklessness, on an anything goes mentality, with no regulation, no supervision, and no discipline in the system.”
Democrats noted that a majority of Republicans had opposed the bill, while a majority of Democrats supported it. |
