Listening to the Senate Banking Committee, chaired by Sen. Chris Dodd (D), grilling Paulson and Bernanke Tuesday about the financial bailout evoked the hubris and arrogance of Congress.
The panel, appropriately, expressed their deep concern that “the taxpayer will be on the hook” for $700 billion. A legitimate concern, for sure. But, where was their concern when they put the taxpayer on the hook for several trillion dollars for Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac?
Fannie & Freddie are the financial Frankensteins of Congress, quasi-private companies whose debts were implicitly (now explicitly) guaranteed by the Government, in other words, “the taxpayers,” while its stockholders and officers raked in the money. Now they have been nationalized and the taxpayers are indeed on the hook for trillions.
The kicker here is that since 1989, the #1 recipient of contributions from Fannie and Freddie is none other than Sen. Dodd, chairman of the Senate committee responsible for overseeing these entities. Dodd’s total take – over $133,000.
How’s this for a reform idea: members of Congress may not accept contributions from persons or entities whose oversight falls under a committee on which that member sits?
No comments:
Post a Comment