By GottaLaff
Everyone loves a winner, and the Winner-elect won some Senators over:
Not yet in the White House but working the phones as if he were, Barack Obama won a crucial Senate vote Thursday clearing the release of $350 billion more in bailout funds from the Treasury Department’s controversial financial rescue program.
For the incoming president, the 52-42 roll call represented his first major test of strength, and he threw himself into the fight this week, reaching out to both sides of aisle and making close to a dozen phone calls, many targeted at Democratic freshmen who won with his help in November. [...]
Republicans were more skeptical, but in an open appeal for their votes, the Obama camp released a new letter prior to the vote saying it had “no intention of using any funds to implement an industrial policy.”
The letter, signed by Obama economic adviser Lawrence Summers, also pledged that $50 billion to $100 billion of the new funds would be committed to a “sweeping effort to address the foreclosure crisis” — a major issue for both parties.
The latest draft also suggests that high-paid CEOs at companies helped by Treasury will be required to take a portion of their salary in restricted stock or some similar form “that cannot be liquidated or sold until the government has been repaid.”
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