U.S. Rep. Harry Teague (Photo by Heath Haussamen)
U.S. Rep. Harry Teague, D-N.M., introduced legislation today that would put an end to the financial-sector bailout approved by Congress and former President George W. Bush last year.
The bill would also use the leftover funding from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) – currently some $200 billion – to pay down the national debt, and it would lower the United States’ debt ceiling by that amount.
“I opposed the bailout because it did more for Wall Street than it did for Main Street,” Teague said in a news release. “We need to end TARP. And rather than allow for any remaining TARP funds to be used as a slush fund for other programs, we need use that money to pay down our national debt.”
“TARP was deeply flawed from the beginning. While most families in my district were tightening their belts, the bailed-out financial institutions were awarding executive bonuses,” he said. “This flawed program still has $200 billion of taxpayer money available, and it’s time to pull the plug so the American taxpayer isn’t further burdened.”
Teague’s bill is called the TARP Sunset and Fiscal Responsibility Act. It’s cosponsored by Reps. Betsy Markey, Suzanne Kosmas, Larry Kissell and Debbie Halvorson.
During a discussion earlier this year about whether Congress should stop the second of two $350 billion infusions of cash authorized by TARP, President Barack Obama said he would veto any attempt to cut off the funding.
While it’s true that Teague said last year, as a candidate for Congress, that he would have voted against TARP because it didn’t include enough guarantees for taxpayers, his spokesman also said, before the actual bill was unveiled, that the government “does need to infuse some money into some of these investment institutions to prevent a total meltdown of the financial markets and our economy.”