Last October, both Senators Hatch & Bennett voted for the $700 Billion TARP (Toxic Assets Relief Program) bill. The plan was for the Treasury to buy up as many of the “toxic” mortgage backed securities as they could, which was supposed to relieve the banks from the uncertainty of the bad assets and make it possible for them to start lending. It would transfer the risk of these bad mortgages from the banks to the taxpayers.
Henry Paulson
Well, after the legislation passed, Secretary Paulson decided to scrap that whole idea and do something entirely different. He had the power to do that because the legislation gave him the ability to do almost anything he wanted to with the $700,000,000,000. Senators Bennett and Hatch and Congressman Matheson gave him that power by voting yes. Kudos to Congressman Bishop for voting no.
