RPC Blog

If you haven't applied for your bailout yet, what are you waiting for? The way the government's handing out money, why not jump on board the bailout train?

The World Newser, ABC World News' Daily Blog does a great job detailing how the Treasury Department is using the recently passed $700 billion appropriated for the "TARP," or Troubled Asset Recovery Program, to buy up bank stock.  As you will recall, Congress was sold on the bailout as a plan to buy up troubled assets, but that plan appears to be on a far back burner. That's one heck of a bait-and-switch.

I, along with 28 other members of the House Financial Services Committee, have sent a letter to the Committee's Chairman Barney Frank, urging him to invite former executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to testify at the scheduled hearing on October 21 on restructuring and reform of the financial system.

I've also requested hearings on alleged abuses by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which receives significant funding from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development and has made many headlines in recent weeks for alleged election fraud.

The non-partisan Tax Foundation released their 2009 State Business Tax Climate Index earlier this week, and Minnesota was in the spotlight. Minnesota made the list of the ten WORST states for businesses, coming in at 41 - not exactly the place we want to be in today’s already sluggish economy.

The foundation notes, “The modern market is characterized by mobile capital and labor. Therefore, companies will locate where they have the greatest competitive advantage. States with the best tax systems will be the most competitive in attracting new businesses and most effective at generating economic and employment growth.”

Last week, I voted twice against the nearly $1 trillion Wall Street bailout bill in the U.S. House. The first bill (with a $700 billion price tag for taxpayers) failed with an overwhelming bipartisan majority.  Then the Senate passed a second version that was loaded with tax “sweeteners” in an attempt to attract enough lawmakers in the House who voted “Nay” the first time around to switch their vote to pass the bill. That jacked the price tag up to $810 billion.  You’ve got to love Washington.

We were supposed to be voting on a financial bailout bill, but unfortunately we got much, much more.

America’s gas prices are continuing to spiral out of control and Washington has done nothing to give our nation’s motorists the relief they deserve. Record high prices are having a major impact on American consumers and businesses, from the way people travel to the way they do business to the food they buy at the grocery store. Congress has the ability to decrease prices at the pump and get our nation back to $2 a gallon gas – and it means accessing our nation’s available resources and opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) today.