Democrats Who Voted Against TARP Funds Say It Wasn’t About the Auto Bailouts

[think]

Democrats Who Voted Against TARP Funds Say It Wasn’t About the Auto Bailouts

By George Zornick - March 8 2016

In Sunday’s Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton assailed Senator Bernie Sanders for opposing, in January 2009, the release of Troubled Asset Relief Program funds that were used in part to bail out General Motors and Chrysler. “When it came down to it, you were either for saving the auto industry or you were against it,” Clinton said. “I voted to save the auto industry.”

Sanders objected strenuously to the charge, and said Monday that Clinton “went out of her way to mischaracterize my history.” He said his vote against releasing the TARP funds was based on opposition to the Wall Street bailout and how it was conducted, and pointed to an earlier vote in December 2008 in which he supported direct help for the automotive industry.

Eight Democratic senators voted the same way as Sanders that day, and three—Jeanne Shaheen, Maria Cantwell, and Ron Wyden—are still in office.

When The Nation reached out to each senator on Monday, both Cantwell and Wyden’s office pushed back on the idea that their vote was “against” saving the auto industry, and echoed Sanders’s broader concerns about what was happening at the time with TARP money. Shaheen’s office did not reply to several requests for comment....

Full article:
http://www.thenation.com/article/democrats-who-voted-against-tarp-funds-say-it-wasnt-about-the-auto-bailouts/

[VulgarPoet]

1. I was against TARP because it was deliberately designed to make anyone who opposed bankers look

essentially like Satan by tacking on the meager $4b to auto companies. It was essentially the fruit of a poison tree, and that is unacceptable when the bankers that crippled our country deserve to be in a cell.

[Wellstone ruled]

2. Never liked TARP,

This POS was designed by the Bankers and we as the Public were never told about the fine print. These Bankers froze up the Credit Market with their Crappy Mortgage Bonds and the world was headed towards a Depression like know one had ever seen. And the Neo-Cons cleaned up because they wrote the fine print.

[Jitter65]

3. Covering their butts. Had it not passed in the toilet we go. nt

[think]

5. I thought the TARP bailout was necessary & done correct when we did it. Now after reading articles

from scholars and those directly involved I've learned it was a great give away to the banks and the abandonment of Main Street. Too big to fail banks are now bigger and they profited at a time when many of those banks should have been prosecuted.

These Senators are the courageous ones who said no to bad legislation and demanded better. The ones covering their asses are the ones who voted for the crappy legislation and approved of shoddy oversight.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15737379-bailout

Fear motivates Americans to let corrupt politicians create bad laws in times of crisis. I was guilty of that fear as anyone. But now knowing what transpired I hope to learn from that and take harder looks at the crap politicians are trying to pass off as sound policy.

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/01/us_bailouts_created_more_risk.html

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. Making us pay to bail out billionaires has the ring of getting screwed all over it.

And, being told that getting screwed by the capitalists is good for us is downright insulting.

[timlot]

6. Bernie's fixation with wall street...

So Bernie voted for the 94' Crime bill because it had things in it like (laws against domestic violence), but he didn't like some on the mandatory sentencing that put a lot of minorities in jail.

He was able to "comprise" on that bill, but on the Tarp bill he was willing to tank the American auto industry because some wall street firms would be getting some of the bailout money?

Senator Sanders seem to have a fixation with "One Issue" wall street and was willing the let Detroit go Bankrupt ie: Mitt Romney because of it.

[think]

7. Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street

I'll take the Inspector General that oversaw TARPs word on it. It did just what the title of his book claims....

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15737379-bailout

[thesquanderer]

8. No, the wall street firms would be getting MOST of the bailout money, not "some" of it.

See http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511442855

And the crime bill was a whole different situation. Senators are often voting for bills that have a combination of what they see as good and bad. That doesn't mean they always vote the same way as long as there is one good (or bad) thing in it, each situation must be looked at on its own merits. As I said in another thread...

You'd look at each bill, look at the total good you expect to come out of it, weigh it against the total bad that you see, and then further weigh all that against the odds of whether the bill is likely to pass with or without your vote, AND the likelihood that you'll be able to get a better bill if you help defeat it.