Rep. Shuster changes bailout bill vote

U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster was the only area congressman to change his vote on the $700 billion plan to bail out the nation's financial system, voting yes on the bill Friday.

The House passage came after Senate approval Wednesday night on a new version of the bill. The House originally defeated the plan Monday.

Shuster, R-9th District, and two other Pennsylvania Republicans, Charles Dent and Jim Gerlach, changed their votes to approve Friday's version. Other area congressmen - John Murtha, D-12th District, and John Peterson, R-5th District - favored both versions of the bill.

Shuster cited provisions added to the bill for his affirmative vote, including a higher insurance cap for bank deposits and increased protections for homeowners. Congressional negotiators broke the $700 billion into installments of $250 billion, then another $100 billion and the final $350 billion upon congressional approval.

"This is not a blank check," Shuster said. "The next president, the next Treasury, is going to have to come back to Congress to get approval for this."

Shuster said he spoke to people about their 401(k) concerns, businesses worried about getting credit, car dealers and others.

"This is not popular," he said, adding that many constituent calls oppose the plan. "People are gonna be angry. I think I've made the decision that's going to be beneficial for the 9th District and our nation."

Friday's bill also includes tax exemptions and suspensions, including extending a duty suspension on wool products and exempting from the excise tax "wooden arrows designed for use by children."

Shuster called the additions "garbage" but said that part of the bill is small.

"I don't know where a wooden arrow plant is, but there's a community in America that's thankful they'll get to keep more of their money," he said. "The garbage part of this is small compared to the overall tax package."

Peterson agreed the bill is not perfect and will not solve the financial situation overnight.

"However, the rescue package will inject much needed capital into the economy, allowing consumers to regain confidence in the market and eventually rebound from the disastrous effects of the subprime mortgage meltdown," he said in a statement Friday.

Member Comments

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homerbeep
10-05-08 8:13 AM »Report Abuse	Klaus: If Obama and Biden share a wet, sloppy kiss on MTV, I'm voting for Groucho Marx! BTW, Al Franken could use a guy like you to write his non-comedic material. ?///==++++ (((*)))&^^ <<<>>>>>>
guttertroll
10-05-08 7:17 AM »Report Abuse	Klaus more like tired of it all. BUSH is the biggest social liberal to have hit the Big house since Carter.
ArtHUR
10-04-08 11:54 PM »Report Abuse	Yea but Bedrock you act like conservatives are the only ones who get pork. And I didnt say to check out his official website...google ONTHEISSUES . ORG...you'll see my point.
KlausVR
10-04-08 10:42 PM »Report Abuse	You probably couldn't tell, but I'm a Democrat. However, and I've said this before, if Cindy and Sarah will share an open mouthed, tongue swapping kiss on national TV, I'M votin' Republican!
gandulf
10-04-08 10:36 PM »Report Abuse	AltLaw--Would you agree this bailout was perpetuated by the 'food stamp' backed mortgages banks and lending institutions were forced to make and in the interest of political correctness?
gandulf
10-04-08 10:30 PM »Report Abuse	KlausVR--Palin is 'W' in a skirt? You don't get out much do you???
gandulf
10-04-08 10:28 PM »Report Abuse	John Eichelberger in place of Shuster? Are you kidding me??!!!! Eichelberger is a sanctimonious pretentious blow-hard who has also abandoned his 'conservative' roots. If there was a way for the local Republican Party officials to convince DelGrosso to challenge either of these two sell-outs, it would be a tremendous step in the right direction.
KlausVR
10-04-08 10:04 PM »Report Abuse	Homerbeep: Let's see ... No. 1 Hoaxlahoma has defeated nothing but top 10 teams so far: UT Chattanooga, Cincinnati, Washington, TCU, and today ... BAYLOR ... OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I WILL grant you this much, so far, schedule wise, 'Bama should be No. 1. ("`-'-/").___..--'"`-._ `6_ 6 ) `-. ( ).`-.__.`) WE ARE ... (_Y_.)' ._ ) `._ `. ``-..-' PENN STATE! _ ..`--'_..-_/ /--'_.' ,' (il),-' (li),' ((!.-'
homerbeep
10-04-08 9:14 PM »Report Abuse	altLaw: Excellent post! They're supposed to work for US, not vice versa.
homerbeep
10-04-08 9:13 PM »Report Abuse	Klaus: If you're trying to be humorous, try harder. How about Penn State's patsy schedule so far? Ranked number 6? Now THAT'S funny!
altLaw
10-04-08 8:30 PM »Report Abuse	Constituents across our Nation called, faxed and eMailed Housemembers to reject the SB anr related HR by 100-to-1. Yet legislators turned their collective backs on all of us? Leads me to say, "Democracy? What Democracy? and soon - when the T-bills start being purchased to pay for this outrage, our entire Republic will be owned by Chinese and middle eastern interests.
livinginBEDROCK
10-04-08 8:08 PM »Report Abuse	More on Shuster...I almost forgot...A little corporation that earned $8 billion in profits last year (hint: starts with a W) was able to get $550,000 to pay for the roadway changes in frot on their new store in Huntington, PA. Did any small mom and pop stores in the district expect such spending on their stores? I doubt it. Did Shuster behave like a conservative helping Walmart? If you go back over his "career" in congress I'll bet his wasteful spending adds up to millions.
gandulf
10-04-08 8:07 PM »Report Abuse	This is the reason why politicians like Shuster should be replaced. The day these types are elected, they are on the way to selling their souls and abandoning their principals--assuming they had any when they were elected. What a shame.
jimdandy
10-04-08 8:05 PM »Report Abuse	Bring back Michael DelGrosso next election. Let's talk him into running again. That is if he doesn't mind Shuster spies following him again!
KlausVR
10-04-08 7:52 PM »Report Abuse	Hey, finally figured out why Palin has seemed to have such a following: She’s folksy, has a nice smile, and can’t put a clear sentence together: OMG, she’s "W" in a skirt!
KlausVR
10-04-08 7:50 PM »Report Abuse	Hey gutter, there you go again throwing around the "social" - "socialist" label you are so enamored with doing. Guessing by your language usage and the fact that you spend an awful lot of time here, are you retired? Or just tired?
livinginBEDROCK
10-04-08 7:48 PM »Report Abuse	Sure, he's doing all he can on his website to sound like a conservative, but If you check his press releases he CROWS about getting more than $6 million to add to the $186 million PA already gets for LIHEAP. Its hard to get away from this issue, can you be FOR increasing entitlements and still be a conservative? And now he voted for this pork bloated rescue bill that was mostly arranged behind closed doors with no public input, is that part of the conservative agenda? At some point you have to draw a line. Shuster is just an opportunist that does what he has to do to get elected. He has no conservative core whatsoever, no underlying values and no backbone to stand up to the other RHINOS in congress. Do I sound heated? Well I'm sick of all the BS and the way the so called conservatives take their voting base for granted.
ArtHUR
10-04-08 7:28 PM »Report Abuse	Well, obviously most of that is pork...which is a problem with both political parties. So that doesn't really define him as a politicia. Did you check out the website? He's obviously conservative-minded on tons of issues like the war on terror, taxes, etc. and much more. PS I'm not trying to argue with you, I'm having a discussion. So don't get heated.
livinginBEDROCK
10-04-08 4:46 PM »Report Abuse	Well Arthur, perhaps you can tell me what is conservative about expnding heating assistance (which is welfare) or providing federal money to put new lights up at the local (privately owned) dirt racetrack? Maybe giving $600,000 to the railroads so they can experiment with locomotive technology is a conservative move? I'm waiting for your answer....These are just 3 examples of Shuster's pandering in order to buy votes. Shuster and his cronies are the reason for the 9 trillion in Gov't red ink and its going to take this country down the drain.
KMadak
10-04-08 2:46 PM »Report Abuse	Yeah, Michael only lost by 2000 votes out of about 80,000 I think. Shuster also outspent Michael (Shuster spent about 19 bucks a vote, Michael only spent around 7) I wish Michael would run again. Oh well.. We blew our chance.
lambs1
10-04-08 1:20 PM »Report Abuse	err, cows?
lambs1
10-04-08 1:20 PM »Report Abuse	By the way, where are the 3 pig s?
lambs1
10-04-08 1:17 PM »Report Abuse	I have already implemented birth control gutter. Castration before entering my green pastures.
guttertroll
10-04-08 12:51 PM »Report Abuse	ROFL lambs1. They're in great hands. NO BREEDING THOUGH!
lambs1
10-04-08 11:39 AM »Report Abuse	gutter, the herd shall grow in numbers in the coming weeks before election, my pastures will become bare filled with ignorant cows collected into my herd. Starving after no longer being able to chew their cud I'll ask Bush for a bailout to make sure they can still vote on election day, BO needs all his morons fit for his celebrations!!!

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