The Senate passed the Bailout Bill 74 to 25 tonight. Big margin. You can probably chalk it up to a couple things. Senators need more money than House members do, and represent larger constituencies, so they tend to be closer to business interests than are House members. Additionally, they're a bit further from immediate voter reprisal: Unlike the House, where everyone is up for reelection this year, only a third of the Senate is in campaign mode right now. They can afford to vote for a policy that might be unpopular in two months if they feel it will be a winner in two years (though only nine of the Senators who voted no are up for reelection, suggesting that that effect wasn't so powerful). And then there's the natural competition between the House and the Senate, where the latter likes to assume the role of big brother and show itself the more mature body. They were probably rather pleased to do what the House could not. Meanwhile, the bill itself has some changes. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation will now insure bank accounts to $250,000, more than doubling the $100,000 limit which was set decades and decades ago. In a fairly cool provision which has a lot to do with the odd segmentation of jurisdiction, the bill now furthers the cause of mental health parity in insurance coverage. And there are a variety of tax breaks and giveaways and exemptions. As the New York Times dryly observes, "The changes in the bill were measurable by volume. The initial proposal from the Treasury Department ran just three pages; the latest version exceeds 450." Tomorrow it goes to the House for a vote, and folks expect it will pass. But then, they thought that last time, too.
