Scary doesn’t begin to describe it. The financial crisis on Wall Street is the worst since the Great Depression and is expected to take at least a $700 billion bailout to cauterize.
It’s estimated that each taxpayer’s portion will be about $7,500 – money most Americans don’t have now and won’t have into the future.
Congress and the White House worked over the weekend to devise a plan to stop the bleeding, but were still arguing Monday about speed versus oversight of the bailout.
Later Monday, the Associated Press reported that they had reached a tenative agreement that included oversight, a point that caused weekend wrangling.
President George Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson initially insisted that any additional measures, or time for debate, would slow the process and cause more harm.
Paulson said other sources of credit could dry up within days. Urgency was being trumpeted over safeguards.
But Congress wanted promises of oversight; and some lawmakers wanted guarantees of partial control of some firms that are going belly-up. Some lawmakers wanted guarantees that there would be no multimillion-dollar payouts for top executives of failing companies.
Paulson says the government bailout was needed immediately and any delays could put the efforts in jeopardy.
He insisted on Sunday that it was only “a matter of days” before credit dried up completely.
Congress was eager to pass a rescue measure for Wall Street, but not without some measure of oversight. They are right.
The most likely measure is an oversight board for mortgages that have become nearly worthless and for the debts that American banks have accumulated. Republicans and Democrats consistently are demanding this needed provision.
Paulson is not going to get, nor should he, the broad authority, without oversight, to spend $700 billion. No one should.
“He’s being entirely unreasonable,” U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the House Banking Committee chairman, told “Good Morning America” on Monday.
Frank was joined by Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., in telling “GMA” that they would insist that an oversight board be created to keep an eye on the country’s massive investment.
“We will have a strong oversight board” that will report to Congress monthly, Frank said. “I don’t trust anybody to have the amount of money he asked for.”
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said there must be oversight, and he wants to ensure that taxpayers are the first to be paid back “once conditions in the industry stabilize and recover.”
He added that “the last thing any of us want is to be back here in a month coming up with some new plan because this didn’t work. It’s important that we act quickly, but it’s more important that we act responsibly.”
Speed and accuracy are key here, certainly, and no one wants to see Congress return in a month to fix an unforeseen problem.
The sooner Congress acts, the sooner there will be a turnaround, but oversight is critical to lasting change, guaranteed paybacks and keeping taxpayers in their homes. Someone has to be watching to ensure this money goes where promised and does what it claims.
For the biggest bailout in 75 years, oversight is nearly as important as the dollars spent and could prevent the next boondoggle.
Only a fool would sign the no-strings-attached package Paulson shoved before Congress.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement