President Barack Obama’s favorite rhetorical device is to lecture the American people about what are and are not “legitimate” public policy arguments. So throughout the health care debate, President Obama insisted that it was “not legitimate” to claim that “a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system.” This despite the fact that Reps. Barney Frank (D-MA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Anthony Weiner (D-NY) and Nobel Prize winning New York Times columnist Paul Krugman were all caught on video explaining to single-payer advocates that the public option was …
Sponsors of derivatives “reform” legislation claim it will reduce costs to derivatives users. Just how more government regulation is supposed to reduce costs in the private sector has never been exactly clear, but discussion at Wednesday’s Senate Agriculture Committee mark-up of derivatives reform legislation revealed that the “reform” will cost taxpayers big time: a 50% increase in staffing (and other costs) at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the agency that would enforce the new regulations. CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler, announced at the mark-up that the bill would require 250 …
There is no person more central to Washington’s bailouts of Wall Street than Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. As President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, he oversaw the federal bailout of Bear Stearns and under former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Getihner designed the original bailout plan for the American International Group (AIG). As Treasury Secretary, Geithner has enthusiastically assumed full authority over the $700 billion TARP fund first secured by Paulson under President Bush and he has continued to wield it in the same haphazard manner as his …
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner stumps for Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-CT) finance reform bill in today’s Washington Post: As the Senate bill moves to the floor, we must all fight loopholes that would weaken it and push to make sure the government has real authority to help end the problem of “too big to fail.” … Crucially, if a major firm does mismanage itself into failure, the Senate bill gives the government the authority to wind down the firm with no exposure to the taxpayer. No more bailouts. Excuse us if …
In mid-October 2008, at the height of the Presidential campaign, Heritage Foundation analyst Rea Hederman began receiving emails alerting him that he was a star in a new multimillion-dollar ad campaign for then-candidate Barack Obama. The ads claimed that Hederman believed the middle class would be better off under the Obama tax plan. Nothing could have been further from the truth. In fact, Hederman’s analysis of the Obama tax plan found the exact opposite: that Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) tax plan would produce twice as many jobs as then-candidate Obama’s …
Speaking yesterday to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Fourth Annual Capital Markets Summit, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal S. Wolin made the case for Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-CT), including this: This should not be a partisan or ideological debate. As David John of the Heritage Foundation has said, “Taxpayers should never again be forced repeatedly to bail out financial services firms like AIG because a company poses a risk to the entire financial system and regulators lack the necessary tools to close the company safely.” We are happy to …
At 1,336 pages, the Dodd financial services regulation bill proposal, which the Senate Banking Committee will begin to consider today, includes language that could create a permanent bank bailout. It is also filled with other significant issues, any one of which could cause serious damage to the economy or consumers by allowing bureaucrats to micromanage financial services firms and require than to meet political priorities. Unfortunately, Sen. Dodd says that he wants the Senate Banking Committee to rush through the bill this week and then to send it to the …
Yesterday, President Obama announced his intention to nominate Ben Bernanke to a second four-year term as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board. Bernanke’s tenure coincided with the most chaotic and painful period in modern financial history. Bernanke has overseen a previously unimagined expansion in the range of Fed programs, and he played an important part in the nearly unprecedented expansion of the role of the government that has taken place over the past year. Bernanke’s reappointment must now be confirmed by the Senate. Before endorsing a second term, members must …
After months of internal debate, President Obama today released his much-anticipated plan for reforming the nation’s financial regulatory system. The 85-page document is nothing if not comprehensive, containing a grab bag of changes covering almost every aspect of the troubled financial industry. Taken as a whole, the changes would trigger the largest increase in government intervention in the sector since the Great Depression, to the detriment of consumers. What’s worse, the proposed changes are unlikely to resolve the real problems facing the industry. Among the key provisions of the plan: …
Senate Floor · FDA Tobacco Regulation – S982 · Supplemental Appropriations for Iraq and Afghanistan – HR2346 · Creation of a non-profit to increase tourism in the United States – S1023 Major Senate Committee Action · Foreign Relations Committee – Arms Control Nomination hearing · Energy and Natural Resources Committee – Comprehensive Energy Policy markup House Floor · Supplemental Appropriations for Iraq and Afghanistan – HR2346 · Foreign Relations Authorization Act – HR2410 · Pakistan Enduring Assistance and Cooperation Enhancement Act – HR1886 · Cash for Clunkers – HR2640 Major …
