WASHINGTON -- (TYDN) The $700 billion Wall Street bailout gained enough votes after language was slipped into the 400-page package removing "incumbent" next to lawmakers' names on the November ballot, according to an investigation by TheYellowDailyNews.
The so-called "removal" language was tucked next to text in the bill increasing from $100,000 to $250,000 the amount the federal government would insure bank deposits. Lawmakers, including presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain, said publicly that increasing the insurance amount for one year was the "sweetener" that salvaged the deal President Bush signed Friday.
But according to interviews and a reading of the bill by TheYellowDailyNews, the House agreed to the final deal Friday after lawmakers were promised that the word "incumbent" would be removed next to their names on ballots during next month's elections.
Revisionist historians said the deal saved U.S.-based capitalism and underscored how Democracy, and its transparency, works for America.
"These lawmakers are so altruistic that when they saved America with the bailout vote, they decided that they didn't want voters to know that, especially come next month's election," said Harold Jeffreys, a former Nixon administration official who teaches history at California State University, Fullerton.
Lawmakers agreed, saying the move underscores that Democracy works.
"Transforming our economy took a lot of backroom negotiations that not even the general public needed to know about," said one lawmaker, who requested anonymity because he did not wish to be seen as seeking credit for saving America. "We nationalized the nation's mortgage system and banking sector to save capitalism, and to do that we had to add some sweeteners to wary lawmakers who were waffling."
Election officials across the union's 50 states were informed of the changeover early Sunday after TheYellowDailyNews posted its investigation online.
The election officials were scrambling to alter already printed election ballots to remove "incumbent" just four weeks ahead of the November election, TheYellowDailyNews has learned. Millions of ballots likely would have to be burned and reprinted, TheYellowDailyNews has learned.
Several Senate and House challengers to incumbents in the November election said they were to file lawsuits demanding that ballots retain the word "incumbent." The lawsuits seek to nullify the hundreds of pending lawsuits alleging that the term "incumbent" should be removed from ballots because the term is biased in favor of incumbents.
Several federal lawmakers, however, said they were surprised that the word "incumbent" was being removed next to their names on ballots. "I honestly had no idea what I was voting for," said many of the lawmakers, who requested anonymity and were granted anonymity by TheYellowDailyNews.
