Ed Morrissey blogs - - -
House Republicans refused to support the Henry Paulson/Chris Dodd compromise bailout plan yesterday afternoon, even after the New York Times reported that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson got down on one knee to beg Nancy Pelosi to compromise.
One of the sticking points, as Senator Lindsey Graham explained later, wasn’t a lack of begging but a poison pill that would push 20% of all profits from the bailout into the Housing Trust Fund — a boondoggle that Democrats in Congress has used to fund political-action groups like ACORN and the National Council of La Raza:
In the Roosevelt Room after the session, the Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., literally bent down on one knee as he pleaded with Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, not to “blow it up” by withdrawing her party’s support for the package over what Ms. Pelosi derided as a Republican betrayal.
“I didn’t know you were Catholic,” Ms. Pelosi said, a wry reference to Mr. Paulson’s kneeling, according to someone who observed the exchange. She went on: “It’s not me blowing this up, it’s the Republicans.”
Mr. Paulson sighed. “I know. I know.”
Graham told Greta van Susteren that Democrats had their own priorities, and it wasn’t bailing out the financial sector:
And this deal that’s on the table now is not a very good deal. Twenty percent of the money that should go to retire debt that will be created to solve this problem winds up in a housing organization called ACORN that is an absolute ill-run enterprise, and I can’t believe we would take money away from debt retirement to put it in a housing program that doesn’t work.
Here’s the relevant part of the Dodd proposal:
TRANSFER OF A PERCENTAGE OF PROFITS.
- DEPOSITS.Not less than 20 percent of any profit realized on the sale of each troubled asset purchased under this Act shall be deposited as provided in paragraph (2).
- USE OF DEPOSITS.Of the amount referred to in paragraph (1)
- 65 percent shall be deposited into the Housing Trust Fund established under section 1338 of the Federal Housing Enterprises Regulatory Reform Act of 1992 (12 U.S.C. 4568); and
- 35 percent shall be deposited into the Capital Magnet Fund established under section 1339 of that Act (12 U.S.C. 4569).
REMAINDER DEPOSITED IN THE TREASURY.All amounts remaining after payments under paragraph (1) shall be paid into the General Fund of the Treasury for reduction of the public debt.
Profits? We’ll be lucky not to take a bath on the purchase of these toxic assets. If we get 70 cents on the dollar, that would be a success. ...
The rest of Morrissey's post's here.
Comments:
If you've followed posts here this past year concerning ACORN, you have to be troubled that its Dem friends in Congress are using the current financial markets mess to send more of your money to an organization that's flat out partisan for Dems and has a history of criminal activities involving voter fraud.
Obama's MSM Tank Corps loyalists aren't reporting this latest instance of Dems trying to use taxpayer money to fund ACORN.
And they sure aren't reporting on the three years Obama served as ACORN's general counsel.
3 comments:
Does "profit" mean "money the Treasury receives for the sale of the assets" or does it mean "money received for the sale of the assets, over and above what Treasury paid for them"? Clearly, it should be the second definition, but when enablers for a group like ACORN are writing legislation, it might not pay to assume anything.
The Democrats and the Republicans both need the other party for cover in this debacle. If the Republicans have even a modicum of integrity (which I am convinced they do not), they will make it clear to the Democrats that they will under no circumstances tolerate the inclusion of ACORN in this legislation as a recipient of government largesse. There was a time when the GOP had principles, integrity, and moral strength; they have apparently traded all of these attributes in for political power--now they have neither. Perhaps they can find their way out of this maze, but supporting this bill to rescue the greedy is not the way. If the GOP were entirely blameless in this contretemps, they would have grounds upon which to pound the Democrats, but each party is guilty and must admit that before recompense can even be discussed. The Democrats forced the banks to grant mortgages to people who had no business buying homes, and the Republicans lacked the backbone to call them on it.
Tarheel Hawkeye
Anybody reading this post should follow up with a look at JiC's 9/27/08 post Dodd's ACORN Graft Payout. Amazing and appalling. I can only hope (forlornly?) that this provision was stripped from the compromise that the crony-capitalists and crony-socialists supposedly reached on Saturday night.
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