Shea-Porter and Hodes Undecided on Bailout

Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes have been doing a lot of reading the past day or so.

When the House rejected the bill on Monday, it was a lean 110 pages... now it’s coming in at 451.

For each of them, there are new provisions they like:

A plan to increase bank deposits that the federal government insures- going from $100,000 to $250,000 and tax benefits for middle class families.

But, of course there is plenty they don’t like.

For Congressman Hodes much of his concern boils down to how the country will pay for the $150 billion dollars in new tax breaks.

TAPE: I think, especially now, fiscal responsibility is an important thing for the American people. I am disappointed that it’s come back from the Senate largely unpaid for.

Hodes and a number of fiscally conservative Democrats want to follow the so-called pay as you go budgeting.

That means offsetting new tax reductions with spending cuts, or different tax increases.

The New York Times reports under this bill, only about $40 of the $150 billion would be offset.

Hodes- who was on a cell phone- says he believes there are cheaper ways to address the root of the country’s economic downfall.

TAPE: I would have put in place a mandatory program to make sure that home mortgages were being worked out...I would have looked for a much more direct way to inject capital and liquidity into the credit markets.

But Hodes says those ideas don’t appear to be on the table at present.

And so, he says, he’s left having to figure out whether this expensive fix sufficiently addresses the root causes behind the economic downturn.

For Congresswoman Shea-Porter, her primary concern remains oversight.

She worries that the Treasury would have too much power to decide which assets to buy and how much to buy them for.

She says she’s been busy discussing the package with other lawmakers, including Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama.

TAPE: the only thing that saves it right now is that you can’t take the money all at once. What we have here is a bill that says $250 billion and then come back and let’s talk again. By putting the breaks on, that’s helpful.

If the legislation passes, the Treasury would have to return to Congress to seek an additional $100 billion dollars.

And return once again if it wanted the remaining $350 billion.

It would take a veto-proof majority to prevent the transfer of funds.

As of Thursday afternoon, Shea-Porter and Hodes still had yet to make up their minds on the bill.

But Hodes challenger, Republican Jennifer Horn says she knows how she would vote.

Horn calls the bailout- bad to its core.

TAPE: it is a bad precedent to set that each time we pass one of these bailout bills the next one is more comprehensive than the one before. And I wonder at 700 billion dollars, where do we draw the line...and we have to allow the free market to be a free market.

Congressman Hodes says he thinks the measure is likely to pass.

Monday’s version was defeated only by a dozen votes.

Adding 18 billion in incentives for clean energy, and a provision that would have insurers treat mental illness on par with physical illness could be enough to get the bill over the hump.

But all the new tax breaks and goodies jammed into the Senate bill might not be why the measure ultimately passes.

Shea-Porter says Congress is worried about the stock market, just like people all over the country.

TAPE: all of my money is in my husband’s and my retirement is in a 401k...I too have my funds that I am concerned about. And we are doing the very best we can to get this done right.

At press time, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would not schedule a vote unless there were enough votes to get it through.

For NHPR News, I’m DG.