"If money isn’t loosened up, this sucker could go down"
Bailout talks stall after White House brawl
By Jon Fernquest |
Bailout talks at the White House last night ended in a brawl.
President Bush declared, "If money isn’t loosened up, this sucker could go down." Paul Krugman describes what happens in his column:
House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) angrily accused House Republicans — with the tacit support of Republican presidential candidate John McCain — of crafting an alternative to undercut Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.Both McCain and his Democrat rival, Sen. Barack Obama, left without any joint endorsement. A beleaguered President Bush had to struggle to maintain order and reassert himself. And when Democrats left after the meeting to caucus in the Roosevelt Room, Paulson pursued them, begging that they not "blow up" the legislation.
The former Goldman Sachs CEO even went down on one knee as if genuflecting, to which Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.) is said to have joked, "I didn’t know you were Catholic."
For all the details see the recent update.
Vocabulary:
stall - stop moving forward, stop making progress
a brawl - a fight
loosen money up - pass a law that allows the $700 billion fund to start buying up toxic assets
this sucker could go down - the financial system could crash (like an airplane)
tacit - doing without saying (unwilling to admit)
tacit support of - supporting without saying you support
X undercuts Y - X prevents Y from acting effectively
an endorsement - a statement that you support something
a joint endorsement - when two or more people state together that they support something
beleaguered - experiencing a lot of difficulties, difficult to overcome
maintain order - prevent the situation from going out of control, prevent chaos
assert - making clear to people that you have authority, that you are in control
reassert himself - regain control over the situation
caucus - meet together
genuflecting, went down on one knee - during Catholic Christian prayers a person bends one knee down in respect
