While America was distracted by the arguments over health care, Copenhagen, terror trials in New York and a "jobs" summit, a new type of TARP proposal that would set up a tax-and-spend process involving hundreds of billions of dollars and that would bypass Congress has been adopted by the U.S. House.
The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act by U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., was approved recently on a 223-202 vote without a single cosponsor and no hearings. Its major congressional actions were its introduction on Dec. 2 and its adoption on Dec. 11.
It is, according to Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., worse than Democrat plans to have the government take over health care across the nation and the massive new taxes proposed in the global warming "cap-and-trade" proposal, combined.
"That's saying a lot," Bachmann told WND today.
The plan will, for one thing, kill jobs, she said, citing a study from Profs. David Evans and Joshua Wright that the bill's "Consumer Financial Protection Agency" would cut jobs by 4.3 percent.
Essentially, she described the plan by Frank, which has yet to move through the U.S. Senate, as a new Troubled Asset Relief Plan like the original that gave truckloads of money to banks or financial institutions at the direction of the government.
This plan, likewise, would involve the government handing out billions of dollars to companies it chose; it also would have government oversight over even minutiae of those corporate operations; and further it would allow the collection of taxes – or "fees" – to fund operations.
But worst of all, Bachmann said, such decisions would be left to the whims of the president and someone who would be appointed to a newly created "credit czar" post.
"Almost no one had heard about the bill until last week," she said. It was given to lawmakers on their return to Washington Tuesday, the bill was on the floor of the House Wednesday, there were amendments Thursday and a vote was held on Friday.
No opportunity for committee review, she said, except for "bits and pieces" of the plan that had been discussed separately.
"In my opinion this was introduced intentionally when everyone was distracted by the president's Nobel, Copenhagen, Afghanistan, Sheikh Mohammad coming into the U.S., the fake jobs summit. … all of this was going on and amidst all of this Barney Frank's bill was introduced."
She said the vaguely written 1,300 pages of proposed law make permanent the bailout procedures used by President Bush, only it would eliminate to ask Congress for approval, as Bush was required to do.
"President Obama would be able to bypass Congress and have a permanent bailout authority – at his sole power and discretion," she warned.
It also, she said, would give the president the authority to impose billions of dollars in taxes – or "fees" – without any further congressional input.
That itself, she said, is a violation of the separation of powers which allows only the U.S. House of Representatives to launch taxation programs in the U.S.
Still worse, the definitions of the bill allow any company that is involved with financial transactions to be labeled a financial institution, and thus become subject to what essentially is the whim of the White House.
"The president could give bailouts with this incredible level of authority," she warned. "The government would now have the power to take over – at its discretion – private businesses either healthy or unhealthy."
"Starbucks could be considered a financial institution if the credit czar chooses to designate it," she said.
The "credit czar" also would "have the authority to ration credit."
Bachmann's analysis revealed taxes of $150 billion would be assessed on financial firms to get the program started.
"If sufficient funds cannot be extracted from the industry to pay for the failures of firms the government deems 'systemically significant,' taxpayers will be on the hook," the report said.
It also, Bachmann said, would expand the Federal Reserve, undermine the safety and soundness regulation for financial companies, actually would give the government control of workers' wages in those companies involved in an "covered financial institution," and provides instructions for continuation at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac of the high-risk mortgage loans that were blamed for a significant part of the U.S. economic meltdown.
U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady said the Wall Street overhaul is just too intrusive and controlling.
