Posted on 03/20/2009 8:59:46 AM PDT by Reagan Man
Reports of additional bailout negligence and mismanagement are rocking the Obama administration as lack of oversight has produced one big TARP mess after another, leaving Democrats running for cover. There were more revelations yesterday of excessive executive bonuses from the mismanaged Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, companies at the very heart of the current financial meltdown, and an announcement from Democrats in Congress that 13 of the financial firms receiving bailout money from taxpayers owe more than $220 million in unpaid back federal taxes.
In an attempt to add some supervision, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Finance, sent letters to Herbert Allison, President and CEO of Fannie Mae, and John Koskinen, interim CEO of Freddie Mac, the two nationalized sub-prime mortgage giants most responsible for the sub-prime meltdown, demanding accountability. Grassley is asking the executives to account for their retention bonus programs at a time when these entities continue to lose exorbitant sums of money after accepting taxpayer-funded bailouts.
Fannie Mae reported a loss of $58.7 billion for 2008 and has requested another $15.2 billion from the U.S. Treasury. Freddie Mac reported a loss of $50.1 billion for 2008, and has requested an additional $30.8 billion from the U.S. Treasury.
According to a report in USA Today, “In securities filings, Freddie said it will pay a retention award of $1.5 million to Executive Vice President Michael Perlman by March 2010. Perlman, whose base salary is $500,000, already collected $300,000 of his bonus. Interim CFO David Kellermann will get an $850,000 bonus, and Senior Vice President Michael May will get $700,000.”
“Just as with the extravagant bonus pay at AIG, it’s important to make sure that taxpayer support isn’t enabling unreasonable compensation arrangements that would never have been possible without taxpayer assistance,” Grassley said.
From the Fannie Mae letter:
“Because I am concerned with maximizing taxpayers’ investment in Fannie Mae, I am requesting (1) the official documents outlining the Retention Program and any other bonus compensation arrangements; (2) records of any communications related to the formation and implementation of the Retention Program and other bonus compensation arrangements; and (3) any contracts that have been executed in accordance with the Retention Program or other bonus compensations arrangements that would bind Fannie Mae to making bonus payments in the future.”
In yet another problem with Treasury Secretary and TurboTax cheat Timothy Geithner’s structure of bailouts as head of the New York Federal Reserve, it was disclosed Thursday that at least 13 of the 470 financial firms receiving bailout money from taxpayers owe more than $220 million in unpaid federal taxes. All 470 firms have not yet been vetted. At the time Geithner was head of the New York Fed and acting as the architect of the bailout structure, he was actively participating in serial tax evasion himself. Firms applying for bailout funds were merely required to sign paperwork stating they had paid all of their federal taxes, ironically the same honor system that Geithner used to avoid paying his income taxes.
Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), chairman of the House subcommittee tasked with bailout oversight, announced the unpaid tax circumstance to reporters but did not reveal the names of these institutions receiving the bailout funds who are tax delinquent, citing that it was illegal for the committee to do so.
“It’s shameful, it’s a disgrace,” Lewis said to reporters. “If we looked at all 470 recipients, how much would they owe?”
On the AIG bonus scandal front, Republicans yesterday were again warning about the dangers of rushing through Congress massive legislation such as the Democrats did with their “stimulus” bill without giving members of Congress and the public time to actually read the bills.
House Republican leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) told HUMAN EVENTS at a press conference yesterday, “Five weeks ago, when we were debating the stimulus bill, I was making the point that we had an 1,100 page bill that no one had ever read. Clearly, no one had ever read [it]. The President signed this bill into law, and then the President said he didn’t know what was in it. Obviously, they didn’t read it either.”
I asked about the Republican efforts to subpoena AIG and Geithner records and communications in relation to this scandal, and if there was yet any evidence of a quid pro quo as Democrat Sen. Chris Dodd and then Sen. Barack Obama were the two largest recipients of AIG campaign cash last year. Boehner told me, “That’s what we’re trying to find out.”
In a HUMAN EVENTS exclusive interview yesterday with House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.), we discussed efforts by Republicans to hold accountable those who have been at best negligent in their bailout oversight roles. “The American people really are beginning to have some buyer’s remorse on what they’ve done,” Cantor said. “And I also believe that it’s important for this system to have checks and balances. Clearly over the last several months this administration’s been here and this crowd’s been in charge, there’s been no check and balance. The way this place has been run, the lack of transparency, they have lacked accountability, and I believe the American people are waking up to that.”
As we watch this daily unfolding of TARP fund mismanagement and negligence, this should serve as a warning to all Americans: when the Obama administration tells you that they are capable of oversight of the massive programs they propose like nationalized health care, look at this shining example of their ability to oversee the 470 financial institutions that have been handed hundreds of billions of taxpayer bailout dollars.
In the meantime,we can do a little on our own,the tea-parties are a start,some deride them,but to me thats much worse then giving up on a party,thats giving up on the power of the individual.Whats left if WE Americans give up on OUR basic founding principle
I hope we can keep it moving.
Wow. I thought this was Free Republic. I didn’t realize I was on a GOP ass kissing web-site.
I take you to task for giving up too soon, so therefor I'm a GOP "ass kisser"?
Your response is stupid. My point remains.
It's cowardly to talk about another poster and not ping them to the post.
Yes I think we need to contact Republicans (and Democrats) and make them vote the right way.
What I don't think is constructive is giving up and saying it will never happen.
And we have one "brilliant" poster who thinks believing those to things makes a person a GOP "ass kisser".
THAT probe will last about as long as it takes the ‘Bamster to find each of their campaign finance accounts....and estimate how “empty “ they are.
More grandstanding from mister H1B Grassely...
You said, "Most people are still infatuated with Obama."
I agree, but the people I know who were so hypnotized by his whole schtick are now agreeing with me when I point out the BS being spread by him, and indeed, the whole Congress, Dems and Pubs alike.
It's like the Dems are battering us and the Repubs are the enablers, standing by and doing nothing to stop it.
The pubbies are being given so much ammo but they just don’t seem to be willing or able to use it. Maybe they will when Zero’s unfavorables rise to more than the favorables (that would be within the next week at the current rate).
Personally I don`t think many if any rats are worth the effort.And to be honest,I`m not a Republican and until the Republicratic party is emptied of the rat wanna be CINOs,I wouldn`t embarrass myself by saying I am.In my opinion at this point in time while the Republicratic party is not worth much to conservatives we have to be practical,as I pointed out to another poster,what other choices do we have in place but that spineless bunch of sad sacks of sh*it?
I never said anything about “giving up” anything. My comment was in relation to how ineffectual, bumbling and incompetent the GOP has shown itself to be in recent years.
That makes you, at best, a person with poor reading comprehension skills and, at worst, a liar.
I haven’t “given up” on anything. You need to read my post more carefully.
And stop acting like a jackass.
Of course the GOP has shown incompetence over the last number of years...but I would add there are times that they haven't. At this point in time there are signs that a good number of them (Specter, Collins and Snowe not included)are not going along with Obama and the Democrats.
About our original comments...
Me:We're doomed right from the start, right?
...you implied that you are giving up on the Republicans responding correctly to Obama and the Democrats -- "NOW". Your remark isn't just about the past Republican performance. It's specifically worded using the word "NOW" to suggest that there is NOW nothing to be afraid of from the Republicans.
When writing, do you comprehend what the word "now" means?
And then I gave you a chance to correct yourself and I asked you if you meant what you said.
When reading do you comprehend what a question mark means?
And your comments toward me implying that I'm a " GOP ass kisser" and either I'm a liar or a person with poor reading skills, shows that ironically either you have a reading comprehension problem or at worst you are a liar and a classless one...
And stop acting like a jackass.
...at that.
Personally I don`t think many if any rats are worth the effort.
If I remember correctly there are 12 rat seantors from anti Obama states.
I believe the pressuring of all 12 rat Senators is worth the effort. I don't see how it couldn't be.
Can we prove Dodds links on billboards around Connecticut? Lets brand this guy as a jackass. That’s the word that sums up Chris Dodd. It resonates.
Yes, ...really scared now.
As in, “I bet they’re scared now that the Republicrats are investigating them”!
Again, I was pointing out how ineffectual and bumbling they are.
It was sarcasm and it was a correct usage of the word now.
You ARE a GOP a$$ kisser. And I did not give up on the Republicrats, THEY gave up on me when they ran George H.W. Bush for president in 1988. Apart from certain actions at the STATE level in certain states, they have done very little good in the ensuing 20 year period, despite the fact that I (and MANY others) continued to support them , and desperately tried, literally for YEARS, to get them to change. Tried , that is, until they ran a democrat on their ticket for president in 2008.
At this point, the Republicrat Party is pretty much nothing more than Democrat Lite. They are like a tusk-less old dying elephant. THAT is what I was sarcastically commentimng on. I am sorry it went over your head.
I will NEVER give up on fighting against president B. Hussein and his Merry Band of Obamites. I have simply come to grips with the fact that the once-GOP will not be helping us do it, as they will be too busy capitulating to the dems and planning their own crimes for when they are “back in power”.
And if YOU think the Repbublican Party did ANY real damage to Bill Clinton while he was in office as a result of all their “efforts”, then you are dreaming. The small amount of damage he suffered was self-imposed. He could have/would have been been elected to a third term if it had been legal for him to run.
Further, the ONLY reason the dems didn’t beat George W Bush like a gong in 2000 was because of the dems and Al Gore’s radical and very VOCAL anti-gun rantings. So, please do not fool yourself into believing that the Repubs did things correctly in 2000. GWB got elected because the democrats did one thing WRONG.
And, of course, once the Repubs took over the presidency, the House and the Senate, it became VERY difficult to distinguish them from the free-spending democrats they replaced, or from the proverbial drunken sailors with six-month’s back pay in their pockets and 3 days liberty, for that matter. The dems have gone stealth on the gun issue for the most part in recent years and it has served them well, so at least THEY are capable of sometimes learning from their mistakes.
In short, the only thing the Republican Party has REALLY accomplished on a national level in the last 20 year is the STRENGTHENING of the democrat party.
Me #11:We're doomed right from the start, right?
You #52:I haven’t “given up” on anything. You need to read my post more carefully.
You #59: ...I have simply come to grips with the fact that the once-GOP will not be helping us do it...
LOL, read the above posts. The irony is over your flat head.
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