WASHINGTON — Rep. Tom Tancredo left a meeting of House Republicans last week thinking there was no way the Bush administration’s Wall Street bailout proposal could pass Congress.
“It really was so evident, really, everybody could feel it,” the Littleton Republican said.
Calling the plan “jaw-dropping,” Rep. Marilyn Musgrave of Fort Morgan condemned Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson for seeking sweeping new powers.
Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs told colleagues and constituents he was deeply skeptical and not inclined to support Bush’s request.
All three belong to the 110-member Republican Study Committee, a conservative wing of the House Republican caucus that Friday offered an alternative to the Bush plan. It called for such solutions as cutting capital-gains taxes to prompt private investors to invest in troubled companies.
“The kind of pressure to approve something and approve it right now just was very offensive to me,” Musgrave said.
There was never any formal counting of votes before Thursday’s White House meeting to know that Republicans wouldn’t support the proposal. But dissent, they said, was widespread.
The Republican Study Committee offered an alternative, Tancredo said, which gave opponents a bargaining position.
The three said there is risk involved with their positions, both politically and economically. And all three of Colorado’s Republican House members weren’t sure what they’d ultimately go along with.
“Any action we take is a crapshoot, including no action at all,” Tancredo said.
Anne C. Mulkern: 202-662-8907 or amulkern@denverpost.com
