McCain Sounding Out Support For Alternative Bills?

Two Congressional sources say that Sen. McCain and his staff have sounded out moderate Democrats and conservative Republicans to see whether they support the conservative Republican Study Committee's alternative bailout bill.

And Sen. Chris Dodd said on CNN that McCain, in their meeting at the White House, brought up House GOP "Rescue" principles that Reps. Eric Cantor. Rep. Jeb Hensarling and Rep. Paul Ryan are circulating.

Dodd suggested that Democrats did not expect McCain to mention any new poposals.

The RSC  The GOP Working group opposes a tax-payer bailout, preferring that it be privately funded. The  GOP Working group would suspend the capital gains tax for two years to encourage business with mortgage-backed debt to sell their underperforming portfolios and provide tax incentives for companies to buy them. Read more:
Economic Rescue Principles.pdf

"We are not pushing any specific proposal," Jill Hazelbaker, McCain's chief spokesperson, said after the meeting.  "We are dedicated to brokering a quality agreement on a bipartisan basis"

McCain told news anchors tonight that he believes that there's been progress made toward an agreement, but he did not specify who was agreeing with whom.

After McCain and Obama left the White House, a White House spokesperson said in a statement that "members of the Administration and the Congressional leaders pledged to continue working together to finalize a bill that will address concerns and solve the problem as soon as possible."

House Republicans are likely to vote en masse against the Treasury bill as currently constituted.