Blunt: Deal Needs To Happen By Sunday

BUT ANOTHER TOP REPUBLICAN SAYS A DEADLINE COULD MEAN DISASTER

Ozarks Congressman Roy Blunt said Saturday that if Congress doesn't reach a bailout deal for Wall Street by Sunday, it may not happen until late next week.

But Republican Policy Chairman Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.) said earlier that putting an arbitrary deadline on a final bailout bill could lead to electoral disaster for the G.O.P. in November.

According to Roll Call, McCotter said raising expectations of investors could spark a downturn if lawmakers missed the deadline. He added that, if the hypothetical deal failed because of House Republican misgivings, they would ultimately face the wrath of voters if an economic meltdown ensued.

"The irresponsible desire to meet a deadline solely for the sake of meeting a deadline will produce an ‘agreement’ that does NOT protect taxpayers from this bailout,” McCotter said, as quoted by Roll Call. "Thus, the public will be outraged a month before the election; principled House Republicans will view any internal whip count as a political dead pool; and the irresponsible, anti-taxpayer ‘agreement’ will fail. … This avoidable outcome, too, could lead to a catastrophic economic meltdown."

Blunt made the comments about a bailout timeline on Fox News this morning, but the lead House negotiator for the economic stability package also made the rounds on CBS and ABC's morning programs.

"We're doing everything we can to have a bill the Democrats and Republicans can work for that protects taxpayers in ways that the original proposal didn't, and provide some alternatives out there that are better. We need to be doing things that insure, one, that the taxpayers are protected and, two, that this is done in a way the taxpayers have every reason to expect they'll get all of their money back and maybe even make a profit. And, three, it would be sure that the guy who is trying to borrow money at the local bank is able to do that," Blunt said on CBS's Early Show.

On ABC, Blunt said there are things in the bill right now that House Republicans could just not support, including "things that make it harder for regular homeowners to get credit," and "things that fund big, political organizations, instead of putting money back into the Treasury."

"The Sunday deadline is an important deadline," Blunt said on ABC. "But it more important to get this right than it is to meet a deadline… We hope we can get this done this weekend."

On FOX, Blunt seemed to speak more forcefully about the timeline. "It needs to happen by Sunday, if it doesn't happen by Sunday, it could be Thursday or Friday of next week. There may be a point when we realize that the majority that's in control isn't going to do this on their own and come up with the bill that Republicans in the House can vote for. And that is their decision," Blunt said.