CNN: WH meeting contentious...new $350B proposal

[godai]

The way I followed the discussion, the 4 major areas of agreement were presented, then Boehner presented a new proposal, something like $350B, with the rest of the money structured in some other way. The implication was that this is intended to be McCain's contribution to the agreement, saving taxpayer money.
Very shrewd and sneaky. There's nothing magical about the $750B figure and the lower amount would be a political talking point for McCain.

This explains some of the Democratic anger shown so far eg Sen. Dodd.

[tekisui]

1. 350 billion buys us half as much time.

These guys are making it up as they go.

goppers are unfit to lead this country.

[Overseas]

2. So they've changed the Gingrich plan of total opposition

But it is a variation of that.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/09/gingrich-mccain.html Here's a clip:

If McCain were to come out against the bailout plan, Gingrich said that Republicans would rally to his side and it would become possible for the McCain-Palin ticket to style itself as "taking on the Bush-Obama establishment."

"Either McCain is going to go along" with Obama in supporting the plan, said Gingrich, "in which case the establishment will have the fix in . . . or you are going to see McCain decide, much in the way that he did in picking Palin, that, in fact, he is a genuine maverick, that he genuinely defends the taxpayers, and that this is a terrible bill."

"If the latter happens," Gingrich continued, "I think you will see the emergence overnight of a 'McCain Reform Wing of the Republican Party' and you'll see House and Senate members siding with McCain by overwhelming margins and then you'll be in a very different political environment. You'll have 'Bush-Obama ads' on the one side and 'taking on the Bush-Obama establishment' on the other side, and that will be, frankly, one of the more amazing elections."