Obama is Lying About the Permanent Bailout

President Pants on Fire said today in his weekly radio address:

Never again will taxpayers be on the hook because a financial company is deemed 'too big to fail'."

He also decried Republican "misinformation" about the bill.

Like the thousand-page healthcare reform bill, the President apparently hasn't bothered to read the financial overhaul bill. Here's a summary of the bailout provisions (PDF):

First, the bill contains a $50 billion fund for resolution of systemically risky institutions. The bill allows a 2/3 vote of the Financial Stability Oversight Council to deem any firm (financial or non-financial) as coming under its rubric and then authorizes the FDIC and Treasury Secretary to treat each of the firm's shareholders and creditors as they choose, without regard to bankruptcy law. Second, the bill gives the Treasury and the FDIC authority to grant an unlimited number of loan guarantees to systemically risky institutions. No Congressional authorization or appropriation is required. Third, the bill gives the Fed the authority to fund any "program" to assist these institutions accepting as collateral anything it deems appropriate.

So when the President says there will be no more bailouts, he must mean that Congress won't have to pass and the president won't have to sign the icky, unpopular bills. Because they'll have delegated permanent bailout authority to a couple Executive Branch agencies.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 11:23 AM

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