Anyone who thought that the House Republican leadership would defend the free market was sadly deluding themselves:
In a closed-door session with House Republicans, Minority Leader John A. Boehner just called the financial rescue deal a “crap sandwich” – then said he’ll vote for it when it comes to the floor Monday.
House Republicans are the key to the bill’s passage – Speaker Nancy Pelosi said earlier today that it’s a “bipartisan” bill and will need “bipartisanship” to pass – and it now appears that a substantial number of them will put cast their votes in favor of it.
According to a source in the room, the plan has so far won endorsements from Minority Whip Roy Blunt, who negotiated it on behalf of the House Republicans; Eric Cantor, the chief deputy whip; and Paul Ryan, a hard-core conservative from Wisconsin who may hold more sway with conservatives on this issue than any other member of the House.
But like Boehner, Ryan wasn’t exactly happy about how things have unfolded. Referring to the situation facing the country – and not the bill itself – Ryan said, “This sucks.”
And what sucks more, and what history should record, is the fact that the so-called party of free enterprise stood by and did nothing while this happened.
[...] in September, the House Republican Leadership failed to make a principled stand against the financial industry bailout despite the fact that the House Minority Leader himself had referred to the proposal as “a [...]