General

[Christian Nelson]

Sorry to raise a necro thread, but I thought it would be good to show y'all what my congressman (or someone in his staff, saying it was him) wrote back to me.

Dear Christian:



Thank you for contacting me regarding the economic crisis. I appreciate hearing from you on this important issue.



In order to prevent a disastrous collapse of the American financial system, Congress passed the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (H.R. 1424) in October at the Treasury Department's urging. This legislation provided Treasury with the authority and funding to establish the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), to buy and remove toxic mortgage-backed securities from the market so that the balance sheets of banks could return to a stable footing.



To be frank, I am enormously disappointed with the way the Treasury Department has executed this legislation. First, no sooner had we passed this legislation than Treasury opted against its very own proposal, and instead used the TARP funds to buy preferred shares in nine of the largest U.S. banks in order to inject liquidity back into the financial markets. Second, Treasury took these steps before the statutorily mandated oversight officials were in place, a serious problem when billions of American taxpayer dollars are at stake.



First and foremost, we must get strict accountability and oversight mechanisms in place before any additional funding is released from TARP. Determining whether or not Treasury's decision to change its use of TARP funds was the correct choice cannot be done by political pundits and talk shows. We need independent and informed oversight bodies to conduct such a review. Last week, the government took a major step in that direction when Congress appointed members to the TARP oversight panel and President Bush named Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Barofsky to be the special inspector general for the program. These two actions will help get TARP back onto a responsible path.



I understand the frustrations many Americans have right now, especially with the complexity and continued volatility of the economy. I believe it is important to remember, however, that our current economic troubles did not develop overnight. Rather, decades of excessive borrowing, reckless risk-taking, and loose oversight led to the financial meltdown that has ground our economy to a halt. Unfortunately, the damage inflicted will take more than a few months to fix. As both a public servant and as the father of two young boys, I can assure you that finding a responsible way forward and out of this economic mess is my highest priority right now.



Again, thank you for contacting me. Please do not hesitate to be in touch with additional comments or questions. I also encourage you to visit my website, US Representative Ron Kind - Wisconsins Third Congressional District, where you can find updated information, sign up to receive my e-newsletter, and send me e-mail.





Sincerely,

Ron Kind
Member of Congress

Usual "we're doing everything we can" type of stuff, though I do like the fact that he's a bit upset at the treasury running with them money with no oversight. I am not too comforted by the oversight though either, truth be told, I would rather see a bunch of companies fold up if they ran them that foolishly.

[Azzy]

Hey, lets not forget that Citi group, which the US public now has a stake in, will soon have a new ballpark named after it

YAY!

We all now own not only a bunch of idiotic and greedy bankers, but the name of a stadium. Our tax dollars at work. Stand tall, stand proud...


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/22/sp...tml?ref=sports

[Venge]

If we could figure out how to become a bank-holding company we could apply for TARP funds.How much we need to pony up?

[Harbinger[TG]]

Originally Posted by Venge

If we could figure out how to become a bank-holding company we could apply for TARP funds.How much we need to pony up?

mcb.com I discussed this with Carter last week.