newtothegame
07-03-2009, 01:44 AM
Barney Frank wants to spend TARP profits rather than pay down debt
What on earth did the other 49 states do to deserve Barney Frank? What? WHAT?!?
His latest proposal is to take the profit on TARP (http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Barney-Frank--49649362.html) loans that should go to reduce national debt and use it for his pet housing projects. As if this man should ever again have anything to do with housing or taxpayer funds.
But now Rep. Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has come up with a proposal to spend any TARP profits before they can be returned to the taxpayers. Last Friday, Frank introduced the “TARP for Main Street Act of 2009 (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.3068:),” a bill that would take profits from the program and immediately redirect them toward housing proposals favored by Frank and some fellow Democrats.
In exchange for receiving TARP money, financial institutions were required to hand over shares of preferred stock that paid a dividend for the government. In theory, if a financial institution paid the dividend faithfully, and then repaid the TARP money, then the government would turn a profit. Last month, the General Accountability Office (GAO) reported (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09658.pdf) that, through June 12, 2009, the government had received $6.2 billion in dividend payments. The original TARP legislation required that money made from the program “shall be paid into the general fund of the Treasury for reduction of the public debt.”
Frank, however, wants to spend the money before it can be used to pay down anything. First, the “TARP for Main Street” proposal would take $1 billion “from dividends paid by financial institutions that have received financial assistance provided under…the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act” and apply it to a trust fund that Frank has long wanted to create for low-income rental housing. (The measure, unfunded, was part of last year’s bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.) Next, Frank would take $1.5 billion from TARP dividends for a so-called “neighborhood stabilization” fund. Republican critics have charged that both measures might allow federal dollars to be distributed to activist groups like the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, or ACORN.
The “TARP for Main Street” bill would also spend $2 billion, apparently from remaining TARP funds, to subsidize people who are delinquent on their mortgages, and another $2 billion to “stabilize multifamily properties that are in default or foreclosure.”
Barney Frank believes the United States Treasury is his personal piggy bank from which he can grab whatever funds he wants to spend however he sees fit. And his democrat colleagues think the same thing! No wonder we’re broke. We’ll never dig out of this debt hole with the likes of Barney Frank holding power.
The Republicans need to get vocal about the bill they introduced (http://hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=d15b816f-1b78-be3e-e003-2c97a5590492&Month=6&Year=2009) requiring all TARP funds be used to pay down debt, before it’s too late.
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I am amazed that these things can continue. Where is his OWN constituency weighing in on this issue? Somehow I knew the american people, who were supposed to have these monies repaid wouldnt get them. Now if Frank has his way...we wont! :bang:
What on earth did the other 49 states do to deserve Barney Frank? What? WHAT?!?
His latest proposal is to take the profit on TARP (http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Barney-Frank--49649362.html) loans that should go to reduce national debt and use it for his pet housing projects. As if this man should ever again have anything to do with housing or taxpayer funds.
But now Rep. Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has come up with a proposal to spend any TARP profits before they can be returned to the taxpayers. Last Friday, Frank introduced the “TARP for Main Street Act of 2009 (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.3068:),” a bill that would take profits from the program and immediately redirect them toward housing proposals favored by Frank and some fellow Democrats.
In exchange for receiving TARP money, financial institutions were required to hand over shares of preferred stock that paid a dividend for the government. In theory, if a financial institution paid the dividend faithfully, and then repaid the TARP money, then the government would turn a profit. Last month, the General Accountability Office (GAO) reported (http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09658.pdf) that, through June 12, 2009, the government had received $6.2 billion in dividend payments. The original TARP legislation required that money made from the program “shall be paid into the general fund of the Treasury for reduction of the public debt.”
Frank, however, wants to spend the money before it can be used to pay down anything. First, the “TARP for Main Street” proposal would take $1 billion “from dividends paid by financial institutions that have received financial assistance provided under…the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act” and apply it to a trust fund that Frank has long wanted to create for low-income rental housing. (The measure, unfunded, was part of last year’s bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.) Next, Frank would take $1.5 billion from TARP dividends for a so-called “neighborhood stabilization” fund. Republican critics have charged that both measures might allow federal dollars to be distributed to activist groups like the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, or ACORN.
The “TARP for Main Street” bill would also spend $2 billion, apparently from remaining TARP funds, to subsidize people who are delinquent on their mortgages, and another $2 billion to “stabilize multifamily properties that are in default or foreclosure.”
Barney Frank believes the United States Treasury is his personal piggy bank from which he can grab whatever funds he wants to spend however he sees fit. And his democrat colleagues think the same thing! No wonder we’re broke. We’ll never dig out of this debt hole with the likes of Barney Frank holding power.
The Republicans need to get vocal about the bill they introduced (http://hatch.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=d15b816f-1b78-be3e-e003-2c97a5590492&Month=6&Year=2009) requiring all TARP funds be used to pay down debt, before it’s too late.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am amazed that these things can continue. Where is his OWN constituency weighing in on this issue? Somehow I knew the american people, who were supposed to have these monies repaid wouldnt get them. Now if Frank has his way...we wont! :bang: