Democrats Speak Against Corporate Welfare, Vote to Continue TARP Bailouts

By: Brian Faughnan (Diary)  |  January 22nd at 05:04 PM  | 

Gee, in the week that Democrats suddenly decided that they needed to rebrand themselves as populist crusaders, you’d think that a massive vote in favor of more corporate bailouts would attract some attention: The Senate Thursday killed a Republican attempt to shut down the Wall Street bailout program. The defeated proposal would have barred the Treasury Department from releasing any funds remaining from the $700 | Read More »

The Phony Democrat Budget

By: Brian Faughnan (Diary)  |  March 25th at 09:45 PM  | 

Congressman Paul Ryan, the senior Republican on the House Budget Committe, today laid out the problems with the House Democrat Budget Resolution:

Hold the Phone: Dodd’s WIFE Was Paid by AIG?

By: Brian Faughnan (Diary)  |  March 24th at 01:33 PM  | 

Senator Dodd, there’s been a lot of attention recently to your relationship with AIG. You’re the top Congressional recipient of their political donations, they have a major presence in your state, and you sponsored a provision that allowed them to deliver bonuses to many of your constituents. And yet even as you’ve sworn up and down that you never wanted to protect AIG, and you | Read More »

Did Harry Reid Protect AIG?

By: Brian Faughnan (Diary)  |  March 20th at 09:19 PM  | 

We at Red State have pointed out several times that while Chris Dodd agreed to insert an amendment into the stimulus bill to protect AIG bonuses, he was not in position to do so. Chris Dodd was not a Member of the conference committee that drafted the final version of the bill – the only one that had protection for AIG. The Democrats on the | Read More »

Dina Titus (D-NV) Knew About the AIG Bonuses

By: Brian Faughnan (Diary)  |  March 20th at 07:17 AM  | 

When the House passed the Obama-Reid-Pelosi debt spending plan – and the carveout for AIG bonuses – Democrats allowed a scant few hours for review of the 1,000 page bill before the vote. Some honest Members of Congress admitted they had not read the bill. Nevada’s Dina Titus however, claimed to have done so: House Democrats voted on the ‘stimulus’ bill just a few hours | Read More »

Geithner Knew About AIG Bonuses; Treasury & Dodd Protected Them

By: Brian Faughnan (Diary)  |  March 19th at 11:13 PM  | 

Today Treasury Secretary Geithner gave an interview to CNN in an attempt to head off further inquiries into the Democrats’ handling of the AIG mess. What he admits is stunning: Velshi: One of the issues CNN and other news organizations have reported since late January, that AIG was going to pay about $450 million to about 400 employees of the AIG financial productions unit, which | Read More »

Barack Obama Should Take Some Advice from Jim DeMint

By: Brian Faughnan (Diary)  |  March 19th at 07:02 PM  | 

I don’t think that Jim DeMint necessarily has Barack Obama’s political fortunes in mind when he advises him to fire Tim Geithner, but it’s good advice anyway. In Washington D.C., it’s not hard to predict what usually happens to a politician in Geithner’s place. Several Republicans have called for him to resign; more will. The press will begin to ask many Democrats what they think. | Read More »

Why Are Democrats Protecting AIG?

By: Brian Faughnan (Diary)  |  March 18th at 01:22 PM  | 

A friend informs me that all but 8 House Democrats just voted against a measure to require the Obama administration to do everything legally possible to compel AIG to return to the taxpayers the controversial bonuses approved by Secretary Geithner. The bill is described here by its sponsor, Congressman Paulsen: This is the text of the bill: Section 1: The Secretary of the Treasury shall, | Read More »

Does Geithner Realize He’ll Soon Want to Spend More Time With His Family?

By: Brian Faughnan (Diary)  |  March 17th at 05:00 PM  | 

Today I had the opportunity to talk to Congressman Kevin McCarthy when he addressed the Heritage Foundation’s conservative blogger briefing. I asked McCarthy how House Democrats view Tim Geithner – based on his conversations with his colleagues across the aisle. McCarthy said that Geithner was in ‘dire straits’ – that he had blown his first impression, came across as the ‘man with the plan’ who | Read More »

Is Geithner Fighting for His Job?

By: Brian Faughnan (Diary)  |  March 9th at 02:10 PM  | 

Tim Geithner is heading to the Hill this evening to brief House Democrats on the administration’s bank rescue plans. This report seems to come rather suddenly; you can’t help but wonder why it’s suddenly important for Geithner to come to the Hill on just a few hours notice: U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will brief Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday | Read More »

Obama Betrayed by His Own Words on Market Collapse

By: Brian Faughnan (Diary)  |  March 7th at 02:49 PM  | 

Given the complete collapse in the Stock Market – and Wall Street’s obvious vote of ‘no confidence’ in the new administration, it’s funny to read the plan that Barack Obama laid out for himself just two months ago: …but the markets are obviously a slightly different situation. Right now, given the sensitivities of the market, I’ve got to pay some attention to market psychology because | Read More »

TARP II Price Tag: Another Trillion?

By: Brian Faughnan (Diary)  |  February 9th at 07:17 AM  | 

Bloomberg reports on the news that Treasury Secretary and Tax Cheat Tim Geithner has delayed until tomorrow the announcement of the ‘TARP II’ request. White House Economics Director Summers says that they’ve pushed it off because they don’t want any distractions from the cloture vote today on the Obama-Reid-Pelosi debt spending bill. Summers is right about one thing: if the administration announced today it was | Read More »

How About Another $1.2 Trillion for the Banks?

By: Brian Faughnan (Diary)  |  January 30th at 02:36 PM  | 

Senate Democrats lined up a show panel to testify on the need for a new TARP. The consensus seems to be that Congress will need to come up with at least $600 billion more, with another $600 billion to be printed up by the Federal Reserve: Noting the $350 billion spent by the government to shore up faltering banks and another $350 billion waiting to | Read More »