Tag Archives: Bailout

News

Darrell Issa and the Republican plan to clean up corruption

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I am happy that Boehner and McConnell are going to push the ban on earmarks, but who is going to fix the corruption, fraud, and lack of transparency elsewhere in government?

Consider this article from Investors Business Daily.

Excerpt:

You may never have heard of Rep. Darrell Issa, but you will soon. Republicans have tasked him with cleaning up four years of Democratic misrule and misconduct. It’s a big job, but somebody simply must do it.

For proof, look no further than Tuesday’s dirty debacle with Rep. Charles Rangel, who walked out of a congressional hearing before being found guilty by the House ethics committee on 11 of 13 charges of misconduct.

[…]As the head of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, California Republican Issa has promised aggressive investigations of misconduct, wherever it occurs. We think it’s long overdue.

[…]The list of troubling government activities that should be investigated is a long one. Issa’s already looking into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And he’s been openly critical of the Obama stimulus’ lack of controls and poor accounting practices.

He — or other GOP committees — may also look into AIG and the other bank bailouts, and answer who got money and why.

Then there’s the Countrywide VIP program, in which some Congress members got favorable mortgages. And don’t forget the $700 billion TARP program, the government’s takeovers of GM and Chrysler, the links between the left-wing community organizing group ACORN and the Democrats, and even U.S. Minerals Management Service misconduct prior to the BP oil blowout.

I would really like to see an investigation of where the bailout money and stimulus money went.

News

Have the Democrats finally stopped spending money on bailouts?

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The AP reports that bailout spending is ongoing, despite Treasury Department claims that bailouts are over. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

The Treasury Department says its bank bailouts are over, but the spending continues.

In a Sept. 22 speech, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the bailouts “are completely behind us.”

That’s not quite correct. In the final six months in which it could spend money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, Treasury set aside $243 million for new contracts for law firms, accountants and money managers to help run what’s left of the bailouts – on top of the $529 million already spent on work by staff, private companies and other agencies. Many of the contracts last until 2019, and there’s nothing to stop the government from hiring even more help if it’s needed to chase down the remaining bailout money.

Treasury’s authority to spend more from the $700 billion fund expired on Oct. 3. The law requires officials to recoup as much as possible of the $185 billion still in the hands of shaky private companies. After all collections are made, the government expects to be out about $51 billion, mostly from housing programs.

Rising voter anger ahead of next week’s elections has made Obama administration officials reluctant to speak candidly about the ongoing cost of managing TARP. Politicians who voted for the TARP law now face tough re-election fights. By downplaying their efforts, officials sidestep criticism of bailouts that helped Wall Street without easing lending or keeping many people in their homes.

A government watchdog said this week that public statements by Treasury officials around the Oct. 3 deadline appeared designed to create a mistaken sense that TARP is over.

“The idea that TARP is dead is just not accurate,” said Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general overseeing the program, in an interview. “People can write its obituary, people can declare that it’s been put out of its misery, but there’s still close to $180 billion of TARP money outstanding, and $82 billion obligated to be spent.”

ECM also sent me this article from the Heritage Foundation which explains how to cut $343 billion from the federal budget without breaking a sweat.

 

News

Why school choice promotes good and restrains evil

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First, let’s see how tax credits that promote school choice help the poorest children to find a better way forward.

The Institute for Justice will be arguing the case before the Supreme Court.

Excerpt:

On November 3, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the oral arguments in the case Garriot v. Winn. Arizona, like many states, offers tax credits to individuals and businesses for donations to fund scholarships for students to attend private schools. The goal of these programs is to give as many students as possible the resources they need to get a good education. The Dennard family has benefited from this program. Hear their story.

It’s good to help poor children to avoid failing schools. In fact, the only people who are hurt by this are the teachers who are paid way too much and yet fail to perform because they are insulated from competitive pressures with no accountability to parents and students.

Should we be funneling money into public schools to pay teachers to fail to do their jobs for our kids?

Well, here an example of what unionized teachers do in public schools when parents aren’t looking.

Excerpt:

Three van loads of Hughes High students were taken last week – during school hours – to vote and given sample ballots only for Democratic candidates and then taken for ice cream, a Monday lawsuit alleges.

The complaint was made by Thomas Brinkman Jr., a Republican candidate for Hamilton County auditor, and the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending & Taxes against Cincinnati Public Schools.

“They plan to bring four more high schools (to vote) this week,” Christopher Finney, COAST attorney, said Monday after filing the suit.

It seeks a temporary restraining order to prevent school officials from participating or helping students participate in partisan politics during school hours or with school property or employees involved.

But the school district’s lawyer denies any school connection.

“No CPS personnel engaged in the promotion of candidates or any political party,” CPS attorney Mark Stepaniak noted in a written release.

That’s why we need to de-fund the Department of Education and force public schools to compete with private schools, charter schools and homeschooling. Public schools are nothing but indoctrination camps for teaching impressionable young people to favor bigger government, which leads to higher salaries for their indoctrinators – the public school teachers and their greedy unions. The fact that these teachers can coerce children to agree with them using the power of the red marking pen makes me sick to my stomach.

We need to enact vouchers and make public schools compete, just like private business have to compete. The public school system is a worthless monopoly and it needs to be broken up right away.