Bush Moves Quickly, Signs Bailout Bill Into Law

Reps who switched vote already spinning change for constituents

By Marie Morris, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 3, 2008 3:00 PM CDT

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Bush Moves Quickly, Signs Bailout Bill Into Law — Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank speaks after passage of the bailout bill Oct. 3, 2008. From left, Chris Van Hollen, James Clyburn, Frank, Steny Hoyer, Nancy Pelosi, and John Larson. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Less than 2 hours after the House passed the $700 billion bailout bill, President Bush signed it this afternoon. With a stroke of a pen, he set in motion $110 million in tax cuts and sent the legislators on both sides of the 263-171 vote home to explain themselves to their constituents just over a month before Election Day, the Los Angeles Times reports.

"I may lose my race over this," said Sue Myrick, one of the 26 Republicans who changed their no votes after Monday's stunning rejection. "But that's OK." And Georgia's Jim Marshall was already airing an ad in his district in which he says, "I'm not going to stand by and let this crisis undermine our economy and damage the financial future of everyone in America."
(More bailout stories.)

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