Senate passes federal bailout plan, House set for new vote Friday

October 1, 2008 | Anthony Ha | Comments | |

The U.S. Senate just voted overwhelmingly to support a revised version the $700 billion federal bailout plan that the House rejected on Monday. The bill passed 75 to 24. The House is set for another vote on Friday, and politicians in both parties say it’s likely to pass this time, according to The New York Times.

The stock market, including a number of big-name tech companies like Google and Apple, took a sharp plunge Monday after the plan’s initial defeat, although the market has since partly bounced back. We got divided responses when we surveyed entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and other Silicon Valley experts on the plan, with some saying there’s no other way out of the current financial mess, and others saying they want to see alternatives.

It’s also worth noting that the Senate bill includes a significant research and development tax credit for tech companies that expired in December. The Senate version includes provisions such as $150 billion in tax breaks for individuals and businesses and an increase in Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. coverage up to $250,000, above the current $100,000 coverage amount.

The tax breaks include incentives for use of renewable energy and relief for 24 million households that have to pay an alternative minimum tax. The bailout money would be released in tranches, with the first set at $350 billion.

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About the Author, Anthony Ha

Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on enterprise technology, cloud computing, and tech policy. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.

  • It will take time to recover market and US economy. need stratgic policy for long term.
    www.oxyshopping.com
  • pissed off
    I am so freakin sick of big government bailouts of the rich and greedy! And then to be told, "it's for your own good" that the government is bailing out those whose greed havs put us in one hell of a recession! I am fuming! Just once I would like to see the governement bail out those who are struggling because of the greedy bastards that caused the problem! Tax break my ass! Put my tax money where your mouth is! Give me and the rest of the country the means to bail ourselves out of debt, instead of increasing our tax burden and spending our tax money like we should have no say in what its spent on! Try asking the general public if we should bailout Wall Street...I'll bet you hear a resounding NO! Should we be sending money out of the country to help out Joe Country...NO!
    The American people, you know the ones paying taxes, paying the salaries of the politicians...the politcians whose jobs were designed to be VOLUNTARY service to the country and are now paid their full salaries until death, regardless of the horrible job they are doing....the American people deserve a voice that is actually heard and heeded. The American people deserve an advocate, we seem to be out here all alone all of a sudden. This bailout is a slap in the face to the American people.
    "It will take time to recover", damn right it will! Because you are helping the wrong people.
    If you gave the money directly back to the tax payers, they could pay off their homes and other debt and have some money left over to spend on things they wanted. They could afford to buy stock in companies that promised bright futures in alternative fuel sources. We could progress as a nation. To pay off the lenders who are foreclosing on the middle class American, you are setting us back financially. The rich get richer, the poor loose everything including their homes. Taxes go up and everybody stops buying things they don't absolutely have to have. BUT if you paid back the tax payer debt gets paid off, investements are made, free spending takes place. The greedy bastards get their money without also getting the tax payers home. Everybody wins, the economy is saved, and we actually start prospering as a nation instead of hemorrhaging.
  • I'm pissed off to
    WOW. Why was the question not asked last night in the debate, I think I know why. The greedy Congress doesn't want to hear our question because they may have to answer it. But here it goes. How can you expect to get faith back in our system when your greed allows this country to get in this mess. You pass a bill that gives money to every special friend but does not go to the root of the problem. With the worst economic slide since the depression of the 30's, you still have the audacity and pompus attitude to slap the honest, tax paying American in the face with your plan. Can you tell me how you really believe giving money to a wooden arrow factory in Ohio and all the other pork, is going to help people keep their homes? It is crystal clear that you believe rewarding the friends of the politicians is obviously more important than solving the problem. Now you also want to continue to reward the people who over exrtended themselves?? How about giving money back to the folks who have lost much of their savings that was in these failing companies run by your friends, but were responsible enough to not over extend themselves and live in a home that is not beyond their means. No you will reward the guy or girl who makes 25,000 per year who was foolish enough to believe the crooked banker that he or she could indeed afford a $400,000 house. And reward the greedy bum on Wall street or the greedy banker who was ripping this American economy off and making 12 million a year and a 15 million dollar bonus because he has now lost his job. Oh but now he can't afford his 10 bedroom, 7 million dollar mansion for him, his wife and one child, lets bail him out to. Please, please, stop the madness. Maybe you should have spent some of your time when you were at Harvard taking a class in common sense. Maybe if you believe there is a higher power and what goes around comes around as they say. Stop ripping off the American people just because you can!! Damn you!!