America this week faces an historic crisis in our financial system. We must pass legislation to address this crisis. If we do not, credit will dry up, with devastating consequences for our economy. People will no longer be able to buy homes and their life savings will be at stake. Businesses will not have enough money to pay their employees. If we do not act, ever corner of our country will be impacted. We cannot allow this to happen.

Last Friday, I laid out my proposal and I have since discussed my priorities and concerns with the bill the Administration has put forward. Senator Obama has expressed his priorities and concerns. This morning, I met with a group of economic advisers to talk about the proposal on the table and the steps that we should take going forward. I have also spoken with members of Congress to hear their perspective.

It has become clear that no consensus has developed to support the Administration's proposal. I do not believe that the plan on the table will pass as it currently stands, and we are running out of time.

Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative. I have spoken to Senator Obama and informed him of my decision and have asked him to join me.

I am calling on the President to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself. It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem.

We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved. I am directing my campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the commission on presidential debates to delay Friday night's debate until we have taken action to address this crisis.

I am confident that before the markets open on Monday we can achieve consensus on legislation that will stabilize our financial markets, protect taxpayers and homeowners, and earn the confidence of the American people. All we must do to achieve this is temporarily set politics aside, and I am committed to doing so.

Following September 11th, our national leaders came together at a time of crisis. We must show that kind of patriotism now. Americans across our country lament the fact that partisan divisions in Washington have prevented us from addressing our national challenges. Now is our chance to come together to prove that Washington is once again capable of leading this country.

As Sen McCain has often stressed; Country Before Politics.  This is what he is doing considering Sens McCain, Obama, and Biden are all still on the payroll as Senators.  The vote is coming before this weekend on the bailout issues; Sen Obama is apparently not even going with his record of "Present" as he will be missing.  Fortunately, The campaign is only suspended until Monday, as he would like an agreement hammered out prior to the markets opening.  The issue should be resolved by that time and Sen McCain has stated he will attend the debate if an agreement has been hammered out.

However: There seems to be no indication this can possibly occur.  Per Yahoo News, "Sen. Lindsey Graham, McCain's representative in debate negotiations, said McCain will not attend the debate "unless there is an agreement that would provide a solution" to the financial crisis. Graham, R-S.C., told The Associated Press that the agreement would have to be publicly endorsed by Obama, McCain, the White House and congressional leaders, but not necessarily given final passage by the House and Senate."  There seems to be no motivation for Sen Obama to publicly endorse a plan his opponent worked on.

One of the interesting aspects of this entire affair is that Sen McCain has been warning the public of the implications of an unchecked Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for more than a few years.  After a few scandals back in 2003 and 2004, Alan Greenspan began to call for stricter regulation of the GSEs and limitations on the growth of their highly profitable, but risky, retained portfolios.  The problem was they were providing exactly what the congress wanted them to provide; affordable housing.  Because they were viewed by the industry as Government backed buyers, they were able to borrow as much as they wanted to purchase mortgages and mortgage backed securities. Their buying patterns and interests were followed closely in the markets. If Fannie and Freddie wanted subprime or Alt-A loans, the mortgage markets would produce them. By late 2004, Fannie and Freddie very much wanted subprime and Alt-A loans.  After their accounting had been found to be fraudulent in 2003, congressional investigations found that despite their subsidized borrowing rates, they had no impact on interest rates.  But, they wee determined to be filling the need for affordable housing.

Rep Barney Frank (D-MA) openly described the "arrangement" with the GSEs at a committee hearing on GSE reform in 2003: "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have played a very useful role in helping to make housing more affordable . . . a mission that this Congress has given them in return for some of the arrangements which are of some benefit to them to focus on affordable housing."  This stressed to FMae and FMac to concentrate on affordable housing and despite any problems, congressional support is secure. 

Sen McCain has been warning Congress for years of the systemic risks in the mortgage market.  Sen Obama? Nothing.  For example: The first head of Mr. Obama's vice-presidential search committee, Jim Johnson, a former chairman of Fannie Mae, was the one who announced Fannie's original affordable-housing program in 1991 -- just as Congress was taking up the first Government Sponsored Enterprise (GSE) regulatory legislation.

In 2005, the Senate Banking Committee, then under Republican control, adopted a strong reform bill, introduced by Republican Sens. Elizabeth Dole, John Sununu and Chuck Hagel, and supported by then chairman Richard Shelby. The bill prohibited the GSEs from holding portfolios, and gave their regulator prudential authority (such as setting capital requirements) roughly equivalent to a bank regulator. In light of the current financial crisis, this bill was probably the most important piece of financial regulation before Congress in 2005 and 2006. All the Republicans on the Committee supported the bill, and all the Democrats voted against it. Mr. McCain endorsed the legislation in a speech on the Senate floor. Mr. Obama, like all other Democrats, remained silent.

If the Democrats had let the 2005 legislation come to a vote, the huge growth in the subprime and Alt-A loan portfolios of Fannie and Freddie could not have occurred, and the scale of the financial meltdown would have been substantially less. The same politicians who today decry the lack of intervention to stop excess risk taking in 2005-2006 were the ones who blocked the only legislative effort that could have stopped it.

So, that takes us to today when Sen McCain is reporting to his place of duty; the Senate, while Sen Obama is continuing his campaign saying, "If you need me, call me".