Proposed bailout gives unchecked power to Treasury, Fed
Posted September 22nd, 2008 by RonShimshock
If you have not yet seen the proposed legislation to bail out America's financial institutions, I think you should do so. If you have read the legislation, I'd urge you to call your local Congressional representative and both of your US senators to urge them to not sign this into law.
There are two sections in the proposal which everyone must clearly understand. First is the following passage in Section 6:
The Secretary’s authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time.
Please read this sentence very carefully. On initial glance it may seem that the bailout will not exceed $700 billion. However the truly important words in this sentence are at any one time. What does "at any one time" mean? It means there is no limit to how much money can be requested as part of the bailout. For example, if the Treasury disposes of $200 billion in bad mortgages and loans, another $200 billion can be bought. This can continue for as long as the legislation is in effect.
A second section which is imperative for people to read is the following in Section 8:
Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.
This is an extremely powerful statement. In simple terms, any decision made by the Secretary of the Treasury (Henry Paulson) in regards to this legislation cannot be reviewed. By ANYONE. At ANY TIME. If Paulson decides to give the money directly to friends working on Wall Street, no court can review it. If he requests a rolling total of $10 trillion over the next year, no group can review it. He has unlimited power with no direction by Congress or anyone else in government. So much for checks and balances...
I urge all of you to please contact your government representatves immediately and tell them you find this type of activity an outrage and unacceptable. This cannot be passed into law in its current format, no matter how urgent anyone on Capitol Hill might say it is.
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already contacted both of my senators and my representative. :)
Heavy sigh - are we mad as hell yet and not going to take it anymore?
The only thing 'they' will understand is our refusal to be saddled with the tax burden, by not contributing to the black hole anymore . . .
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITI...
interesting bottom line poll on Obama in the midst of an article about McCain's plan - gotta love the MSM . . .
This is a tyrannical, illegitimate exercise in governmental power. We need to decide, as a nation, is our Constitution the law of the land, or just something to line a birdcage with? We've been lining our birdcage with it with ever increasing regularity ever since the Great Depression.