New Broom Coalition

Here's the text of our press release of today:

"I do not support any type or form of bail-out of private companies using taxpayer money.

Instead, the CEOs of these institutions should be held responsible for their failures.

I believe that elected officials who received campaign funds from banks and financial services concerns and who then passed legislation to deregulate the financial sector should be held accountable.

In the draft legislation before Congress, I have serious concerns with three specific provisions

(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/business/21draftcnd.html):

Sec. 6. Maximum Amount of Authorized Purchases.

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

This provision obligates the American taxpayer to $700 billion dollars. That's almost a trillion dollars. Yet, nothing in this Act would guarantee any return to the taxpayer. Government has in effect said, "A trillion dollars for Business, not one penny for homeowners."

Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke claims that to do nothing will cost taxpayers more than the bail-out. I ask why should the American people be expected to pay anything at all to save Wall Street? As for companies that are "too big to fail," I ask who let them get so big in the first place that they could threaten us?

Sec. 10. Increase in Statutory Limit on the Public Debt.

Subsection (b) of section 3101 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking out the dollar limitation contained in such subsection and inserting in lieu thereof $11,315,000,000,000.

When I spoke at the Fourth of July at Jacinto Courthouse, the national debt stood at $9.5 trillion. Now, the ceiling is being raised even higher, by almost 20% overnight. We need to balance our budget and pay down the national debt, not raise it. We should not be tempted to do this even though our economic situation seems dire. Instead, we should pause, require Wall Street to cease trading and financial markets to stop all transactions if necessary, until a reasoned and viable, long-term plan can be designed to protect the people from the effects of economic collapse.

Sec. 8. Review.

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 makes the Secretary of the Treasury the most powerful man in Washington. His decisions cannot be criticized, much less over-ruled, by the President, Congress, or the Courts.

The timing of this crisis and the demand for speedy legislation reminds me of the anthrax letters and Congress' hasty passing of the USA Patriot Act, a law granting sweeping powers to the Government, which legislation was not even read by most Congressmen and Senators before they passed it.

Let us not make the same mistake twice. Some things are too important to hurry. Congress should stay in session, stand up to the Bush administration and the special interests, and come up with a plan that protects taxpayers.

I support Senator Sanders' plan (www.sanders.senate.gov/news/record.cfm?id=303313): tax those who benefited from Bush tax policy and the financial bubble, but don't raise taxes on the poor or the middle class. Break up the companies that are "too big to fail."

I enthusiastically applaud Green candidate Cynthia McKinney's comments in her "Seize the Time" essay (http://votetruth08.com) and am proud to support McKinney-Clemente on Nov. 4.

No more bail-outs. Ask questions. Demand answers."