Lucille
01-14-2009, 01:46 PM
January 14, 2009
Dear fellow patriot,
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.
There are two ways I would ask you to help today:
1. Please contact your representatives and urge them to oppose H.R. 384. If you need your representatives' contact information, it can be found at C4L's website: http://www.campaignforliberty.com/kb.php Remind them that TARP was similarly rushed through the House and has not only failed to meet its objectives, but is nowhere near fully accountable.
2. Please visit: https://www.campaignforliberty.com/donate.php and make a most generous donation of $25, $50, $100, or even $1,000. It may not feel like it sometimes, but there are millions of folks who agree with us on the principles of liberty and the free market. We must reach out to these fellow patriots and that takes money.
Although the Frank bill is marketed as addressing concerns about TARP's accountability, it must go through the regular committee markup process.
It is only right that the Treasury and the Federal Reserve be required to lay out all their information on how previous TARP funds were dispersed before any further money is authorized or additional efforts made.
Dear fellow patriot,
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.
There are two ways I would ask you to help today:
1. Please contact your representatives and urge them to oppose H.R. 384. If you need your representatives' contact information, it can be found at C4L's website: http://www.campaignforliberty.com/kb.php Remind them that TARP was similarly rushed through the House and has not only failed to meet its objectives, but is nowhere near fully accountable.
2. Please visit: https://www.campaignforliberty.com/donate.php and make a most generous donation of $25, $50, $100, or even $1,000. It may not feel like it sometimes, but there are millions of folks who agree with us on the principles of liberty and the free market. We must reach out to these fellow patriots and that takes money.
Although the Frank bill is marketed as addressing concerns about TARP's accountability, it must go through the regular committee markup process.
It is only right that the Treasury and the Federal Reserve be required to lay out all their information on how previous TARP funds were dispersed before any further money is authorized or additional efforts made.