More from Ron Paul:
Representative Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has introduced H.R. 384, the TARP Reform and Accountability Act, which has bypassed normal committee procedures and could come up for a vote on the House floor today.
Once again, you and I and the U.S. taxpayer are being taken to the cleaners. Well I say, let's tell them this time how we really feel.
According to Frank, this amendment will add transparency and accountability to the TARP Act. But as is standard operating procedure for the federal government, a bill posing as an effort to tighten oversight and increase accountability only further intensifies government manipulation of the market.
Here are a few of the harmful provisions lurking in the legislation:
- Codifies the use of TARP funds to bail out auto manufactures and make loans to their financing arms. Congress opposed the use of the funds for this purpose during the TARP debate, and it must not be "read back" into the legislation.
- Requires that "no less than $40 billion" of the remaining $350 billion TARP dollars be assigned to foreclosure mitigation. More government interference in the housing market to keep prices high.
- Clarifies the Treasury Department's authority to establish new offices to oversee the availability of consumer loans, such as student and auto loans. More government bureaucracies to supervise other bureaucracies.
- Keeps the increase in deposit insurance coverage for banks to $250,000 permanently, which was enacted temporarily as part of TARP to stave off bank runs.
- Increases the FDIC's borrowing authority from $30 billion to $100 billion and allows it to obtain sums in excess of $100 billion upon the Treasury Secretary's approval. If you said "way too much authority without Congressional approval," you guessed right.
1 comment:
The rush to the bailout has been shockingly similar to the rush to declare war in the middle east. Ron Paul is right, we are paying for it now and we will be paying for it many tomorrows ahead. As we sat down to pay our quarterly taxes on our small business yesterday, the ire brewed as we thought about the billionaire CEO's who have not done the purdent and right thing with their business (like we have done over the past 12 years) who will be profiting from OUR good business practices. It was the first time in 12 years, we didn't want to pay our taxes, I mean really didn't want to. As the government buys up (lends liquidity)to these massive institutions, those on the payroll should be paid like a government employee, until the gov is paid back.
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