When the deal gets revealed — later today or tomorrow — check to see if the House Repubs had any impact on the final legislation. If they didn’t, uh-oh.
Here’s a handy checklist of what they wanted.
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Excerpted from Rasmussen Reports: “A Paulson-Cantor Plan Is a Win-Win for Taxpayers”, Lawrence Kudlow, September 26, 2008
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Basically, the House Republicans want a “cleaner” bill with
1. Inclusion of a federal bond insurance guarantee for straight mortgage-backed paper, financed by private-sector insurance premiums. (The “Cantor Plan”)
2. Removal of the ACORN slush fund [Ken’s POV: Ostensibly, this provision is to provide more affordable housing to certain communities. That’s the policy that got us into this mess to start with. ACORN is Obama’s major mobilizer for voter registration.]
3 Removal of the so-called union proxy to run a slate of corporate directors
4. Requirement that all profits from the Treasury rescue mission must be used to reduce the national debt — 100 percent. [Ken’s POV: This is key … otherwise, the $700 billion will become a permanent layer of national debt — with any paydown simply diverted to other programs]
5. Removal of authority to bankruptcy judges for setting mortgage terms and interest rates [Ken’s POV: Otherwise, non-citizens who lied on their mortgage apps and never had an ability to repay loans will be getting more favorable terms than their neighbors who played by the rules]
6. Elimination of the so-called government equity ownership of banks … because it effectively creates a corporate tax increase on banks at a time when they are struggling.
7. Scaling back the Treasury secretary’s request for $700 billion … or at least phasing it in.
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