Bank Tax Misses the Real Bailout Deadbeats in Detroit and DC

Facing rising populist anger over his administration’s billion-dollar bailouts, President Barack Obama proposed a $117 billion tax over the next 12 years on financial companies with assets of more than $50 billion. “We want our money back, and we’re going to get it,” the President said. The President is half right. Taxpayers are going to get their money back from the banks that received bailout money … but don’t expect to see any of the money the Obama administration poured into General Motors and Chrysler at the behest of their union allies. That is where the real losses are coming from.

The TARP program has so far distributed $247 billion to more than 700 banks. Of that, $162 billion in principal and $11 billion in interest and dividends have already been repaid. Except for AIG, almost all banks that received taxpayer money are expected to pay back the American taxpayers in full. As The New York Times reports: “The losses from the bailout fund are expected from money paid to rescue Chrysler and General Motors and the insurance giant American International Group, and from a program to help homeowners avert foreclosures.”

So the real deadbeats that are not giving us “our money back” are not the banks, but the union-backed car companies and failed government mortgage modification programs. But guess what? The White House has chosen not to include the car companies among the institutions that will pay this so called “Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee.” Also exempted are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored entities that helped create the crisis.

The plan also will do nothing to help reform the banking system. Financial regulatory analyst Karen Shaw Petrou tells The Washington Post: “The new big-bank tax is just like charging a nickel sin tax on a half-gallon of cheap liquor — it may make moralists feel good, but it doesn’t do much to stop bad behavior.” Instead of protecting consumers, it will just end up hurting them. Financial services analyst Meredith Whitney tells The New York Times: “The irony is it hurts the weaker banks more than the stronger banks. To think that it won’t come out of consumers and businesses is mistaken.” And banking analyst David Hendler tells Bloomberg: “We remain concerned that this is more evidence of the cynical view of the banking industry which prevails in Washington.”

In sum, this new $117 billion Obama tax will penalize firms that already repaid TARP, and some who never accepted bailout money to begin with, while also making it harder for Americans to get the loans they need to help our economy recover, all while letting the real deadbeats get off scot-free. If the President were serious about making taxpayers whole and restoring confidence in the banking sector, then he should end TARP now.

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The following is an op-ed by Scott Brown in the Jan 14th Boston Globe. Reprinted in its entirety without permission.

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Scott Brown

I DIDN’T grow up with all the advantages in life. My mom was on welfare for a time, but I had the support of a loving family and good friends and neighbors. I don’t have all the advantages in this race either, and that’s fine by me. Being the underdog has taught me to work harder, and to appreciate the opportunities of our state and our country.

I’m running because more of our people are unemployed today than ever before. Public debt has reached $12 trillion and counting, and Washington politicians want to borrow trillions more. Terrorists want to strike our country again, and they will do so if we let down our guard. We have fighting forces in two theaters of war, and those men and women need our support.

Like everyone else, I want to see more Americans with good health care coverage. I like what we achieved in Massachusetts. It’s not perfect, but nearly everyone is now covered by a private insurance policy – not a government policy. I hope other states follow our example.

But the healthcare bill under discussion in Washington is not good. It will raise taxes and increase spending. If you are a senior on Medicare, it will lead to a half trillion dollars in cuts to your care. Since we are way ahead of the rest of the country with our own state reforms, we will get nothing in return. My opponent, Martha Coakley, will vote yes on this bill. I will insist we start over.

Failure should be admitted in Washington, and not repeated. With last month’s news that we lost another 85,000 jobs, and with unemployment stuck in the double digits, it’s time to admit that while the $787 billion stimulus had the best of intentions, it failed to create one new job. We shouldn’t pass yet another stimulus that adds to the debt without adding jobs.

My plan for the economy is simple: an across-the-board tax cut – in the tradition of John F. Kennedy – for families and businesses that will increase investment and lead to immediate new job growth. More tax increases will hurt our recovery. That’s why I have taken a no-new-tax pledge.

My opponent will raise taxes.

Amid all our domestic challenges, our nation is still at war with radical Islamic terrorists determined to destroy our way of life. The Christmas bombing attempt on a Northwest Airlines plane is a wake-up call. But instead of being interrogated by military professionals at Guantanamo, the plane bomber has been given taxpayer-funded lawyers in a US courtroom. Because he’s been granted constitutional rights, he’s invoked his privilege to remain silent. Would-be killers should be treated for what they really are: enemies of a country at war, not ordinary criminals.

My opponent would accord such terrorists all the rights our Constitution grants to citizens. I will treat them as enemy combatants who should face military justice.

As this special election draws to a close, the enthusiasm from everyday citizens has been remarkable. To those who have lost faith in their elected leaders, I say: Don’t lose heart. One-party dominance in our state has led to bad decisions and a culture of corruption, but we can restore people’s faith by restoring balance to our political system.

They call me a long shot. But I’m betting that a new day is coming in Massachusetts. I am running in the name of all independent-thinking citizens, whether they are Democrats, Republicans, or unenrolled, to take on one-party rule, and the Beacon Hill bosses, and their machine, and their candidate. With your help, I intend to win.

Scott Brown is a Republican state senator from Wrentham.

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-Cnation

Behind Closed Doors, Unions Win, You Lose

Yesterday, President Barack Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and nine other lawmakers met face-to-face for seven hours to resolve differences between the House and Senate health care bills. At the same time these talks were going on, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern and United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger met with other Obama administration officials in a separate room in the White House. This all comes after these same labor leaders met personally with Speaker Pelosi yesterday, and after they met face-to-face with President Obama in the White House on Monday. Despite then-candidate Barack Obama’s explicit promises to the American people, absolutely none of these meetings were open to the public or televised on C-SPAN. In fact, Politico reports: “Those involved in the talks sought to keep details of their progress under wraps.”

And just what deals were Big Labor, the leftist majorities in Congress and the Obama administration making behind closed doors? How to pay for President Obama’s likely $1 trillion health care plan without raising taxes on one of the President’s most loyal constituencies: labor unions. Specifically, Big Labor reportedly has struck a deal with health care negotiators to exempt union members from the 40% excise tax on high-priced health insurance premiums. By some estimates, the tax would hit one in four union members. Now Big Labor will get all of the big government health care spending they always wanted, but they will not have to pay for it.

And Obamacare’s Big Labor handouts don’t end there. The legislation also sets aside $5 billion to subsidize the costs of employer health benefits for early retirees. As Heritage fellow James Sherk notes, few nonunion employers, of course, pay pension and health benefits for workers to retire at 55. And then there’s the small business exemption from the employer mandate for businesses with less than 50 employees. At first this applied to all small businesses, but after aggressive lobbying by Big Labor, non-unionized construction businesses were unexempted. Big Labor lobbyists explicitly admitted they wanted to use Obamacare’s job-killing employer mandates as a competitive advantage to drive non-unionized firms out of business.

So where does the White House and Congress propose to regain the revenue lost from exempting unions from the health care excise tax? The people who fund job creation: investors. The Obama administration wants to apply the Medicare payroll tax not just to wages but to capital gains, and for the first time ever, to dividends and other forms of investment income. This tax will hit seniors the hardest since many of them live off their dividend and interest income, in addition to their pension and Social Security checks. But it also hurts us all since high taxes on capital gains, dividends, interest and business income increase the cost of capital, thus depressing investment at the very time the economy needs new investment to grow and create jobs.

Big Labor’s high wages and inflexible work rules have already bankrupted our nation’s once proud automobile industry. Across the country, their early retirement and exorbitant pensions are bankrupting states. The health insurance excise tax was once the signature health care spending cost cutter of Obama’s entire health care plan. Now it has been gutted at the altar of Big Labor power. The big loser in all of these cases is you, the American taxpayer.
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Right on the money:

Keep America Safe: “100 Hours” from Keep America Safe on Vimeo.

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-Cnation

This says as much or more about the character of the liberal senatorial candidate from Massachusetts, Martha Coakley – who, incidentally, is the Massachusetts Attorney General - than anything else that could be proven of her to date.

Coakley actually stood right there and witnessed a reporter from the Weekly Standard being assaulted by a campaign staffer, and did absolutely nothing about it.

Assault and battery is a crime. Even in Massachusetts. Martha Coakley is Massachusetts’ cheif law enforcement officer. Are you beginning to understand the problem we have here?

It is being reported by Ed Morrissey at Hot Air that the assailant may be a man by the name of Michael Meehan of Blue Line Strategic Communications, “…who has worked for John Kerry, Maria Cantwell, and was sent to Massachusetts by the DSCC to handle “messaging” for Coakley.”

Like seemingly everyone else in this once semi-respectable party, Coakley is a disgrace, and the good people of Massachusetts, ragardless of political affiliation, should be embarrassed and ashamed to have this woman claiming to represent them.

Hot Air has the story, along with a video and pictures of the assault, and a good still photo of the assailant.

U.S. senatorial candidate and current Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley looks on as staffer assaults reporter.

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-Cnation

Via the Boston Globe:

A major national union supporting Democrat Martha Coakley is taking out a massive TV ad buy that slams her Republican rival, Scott Brown, for his positions on abortion and climate change.

The ad taken out by the Service Employees International Union, will begin airing statewide tomorrow. The buy size is $685,000, one of the largest of the election.

“Before you vote for Senate, here’s a few things you should know about Scott Brown,” says a narrator in the 30-second spot. The narrator then says he “has repeatedly opposed a woman’s right to choose” and he “expresses skepticism that climate change is being caused by humans.”

“No wonder Brown’s campaign is being supported by the same extremist group that backs Sarah Palin,” the narrator says. “Martha Coakley for Senate. Massachusetts values.”

This is $685,000 of SEIU money (probably stimulus money) that will be funding television ads attacking Scott Brown during this final week before the election.

This Coakley woman is a nasty. nasty piece of work and absolutely must be stopped before she reaches the senate and becomes another reliable far-left vote. Scott Brown is the man who can stop her, who can stop Obamacare, and break the Dem’s stranglehold on the senate.

Please donate whatever you can, even if only just a few bucks.

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Here’s Scott Brown with Greta Van Susteren last night. Good interview, worth a watch to get an idea of who Scott Brown is and where he stands.

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-Cnation

U.S. Senate Candidate Scott Brown

“With all due respect, it’s not the Kennedys’ seat, It’s not the Democrats’ seat. It’s the people’s seat.’’

On January 19, Massachusetts will hold a special election to fill the senate seat vacated by the recently departed Ted Kennedy. Conventional wisdom says the seat will go to a democrat in this most liberal of northeastern states, but these are not conventional times; Republican Scott Brown is mounting a very serious challenge for this seat and actually has a very legitimate shot at winning it.

The Massachusetts Democrats are nervous, and with good reason: Scott Brown, currently a state senator, is the real deal, and has gained a tremendous amount of momentum and support over the past couple of weeks. And since his election to the United States senate would break the Dem’s critical 60-seat filibuster-proof supermajority, his campaign has gained national interest due to its high-stakes nature and the potential that it carries to stop the Obama machine dead in its tracks. Brown has stated in no uncertain terms that if seated in time, he will absolutely vote against Obamacare, thereby killing it in the Senate unless another Republican (ie Snowe, Collins) crosses over.

This morning, Scott Brown’s campaign started a drive to raise $500,000 in one day. They hit that number right around 4pm. They then raised the goal to $750,000 and reached it by 6:30pm.

By midnight, the Scott Brown campaign had raised $1,303,302.50!

However, the fight promises to get intense in this final week before the election. The anti-Brown attack ads have already started in earnest on both television and radio, the DNC has sent their National Press Secretary Hari Sevugan to ‘help out’ – and apparently ‘helping out’ means bringing Sarah Palin’s name inexplicably into the fray – and Bill Clinton himself is set to campaign for Coakley.

Scott Brown needs our support. He can win this thing, break the Democrat supermajority, and stop the Obamacare debacle.

Donate Here

I’ll leave you with what I feel was one of the highlights of this evening’s debate between Brown and Coakley:

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-Cnation

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