The Bailout - Taxpayers Beware

The U.S. Congress

Since 2001, both the Bush Administration and the U.S. Congress have been asleep at the switch. The Executive and Legislative branches of government have been, and still are clueless. The administration is now pushing for a taxpayer bailout of the financial services industry both in the U.S. and abroad. We are being told that it will cost $700 billion. Given the government’s track record on accurate cost estimates, we should expect that it will cost at least twice that amount. Any congressional incumbent that votes for a bailout plan that does not require full taxpayer “payback” and a strong oversight mechanism, should definitely be removed from the Congress on election day. U.S. taxpayers should not be required to bail out irresponsible lenders and borrowers whose actions (if not criminal), were at the very least, unethical.

Any taxpayer bailout of the financial industry authorized by the U.S. Congress should be in the form of a loan to be paid back within a specific time limit and with interest at the rate charged by the U.S. banking industry for commercial loans. An organization should be formed under the authority of the U.S. Treasury Department to administer the program. This organization should be required to issue quarterly reports to the Government Accountability Office and the reports should be available to the news media and available on the internet.

If a loan recipient defaults on repayment of the loan, the government should seize all remaining assets of the defaulting borrower and sell the assets at auction. All money recovered through either loan repayment or sale of assets should be deposited in a special “Individual Taxpayer Recovery Fund” administered by the Treasury Department. All money in the fund should be returned to taxpayers until such time as all loans are satisfied and/or all defaulting borrower assets are liquidated. There should be a provision in the bailout law that states that this fund can be used for no other purpose. This provision is absolutely necessary to keep the Congress’s greedy hands away from the taxpayers’ refunds.

NOTHING LESS THAN FULL REPAYMENT TO THE TAXPAYERS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED ACCEPTABLE.

Contact your congressional representatives today. Let them know how you feel. Please don’t just sit there and do nothing. You will be paying for their mess, and so will your children and grandchildren.

https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The Bailout - Taxpayers Beware