Few Limits Proposed for Paulson in Aftermath of Economic 9/11
September 22nd, 2008Dems squealing flaccidly, as usual.
Via: Wall Street Journal:
If the Bush administration has its way, anyone harmed by the Treasury Department’s handling of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout might have no remedy.
Draft legislation proposes sweeping powers for Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to buy and sell mortgage-related securities however he sees fit. Aside from requiring periodic reports to Congress, the bill provides no oversight of the bailout’s management — and specifically bars any court or agency from reviewing it.
Congressional Democrats said they were wary of handing a lame-duck administration what one aide called a “blank check.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D., Mich.) “is very concerned about the breadth of the draft language, and we are working to insure that reasonable limits are included,” a committee staffer said.
The effort to block court review reminded some congressional staffers of the Bush administration’s response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when it issued language and took steps to keep judges from second-guessing decisions about wiretapping and detention of suspected enemy agents.
In that crisis, and apparently in this one, the administration argued that exposing to court review actions made on the fly would deter officials from taking risks and responding quickly.
A Treasury Department spokeswoman, citing intense negotiations with Capitol Hill, declined to say why the language was inserted or whether the administration would consider alternative forms of oversight. “We’re not going to comment on a draft that is fluid” or provide the latest proposals, said spokeswoman Brookly McLaughlin.
The Paulson bailout proposal would give endless, absolute, dictatorial power to the Treasury, not subject to review by the Courts or the Congress.While not fixing the situation! It creates another Federal Reserve scale extra-legal entity. Checkout the book Shock Doctrine by Naomi Kline for a discussion of disasters and their beneficiaries. Emotions are running high now which is the perfect time to push through this naked power grab.
Secretary Paulson, Chairmen Greenspan and Bernanke and Senator Phil Gramm fostered the conditions that created this financial structure. Why should we believe any proposal from Paulson will fix his creation?
Stirling Newberry’s ‘The Way Forward’ on Daily Kos has a better discussion and a better plan. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/21/75335/6687/799/605351
Good luck to us all.