Seattle P.I. - Your Taxes Shouldn't Bailout Wall Street

Op-Ed

Seattle P.I. - Your Taxes Shouldn't Bailout Wall Street
Op-Ed by Dave Reichert

Everyone now understands that the economic crisis facing our country touches every sector of the national and global economy. Each day it seems a new worry appears, calling into question the safety and security of our banks, retirements, education, employment and the affordability of gas, food and health care.

Those challenges have created justifiable anxiety among Americans, and Congress must act to ensure that credit remains available for middle-class families to buy homes, put children through college and plan for secure retirements.

But action in this case must be right -- not rushed -- as the bailout package was.

It's no wonder the public is dissatisfied with Congress when no alternative proposals were allowed to be considered to modify an unprecedented authorization of $700 billion. I opposed the bailout package because it did not protect taxpayer dollars, contain adequate oversight and corporate accountability or use more private money to fix the problem. I could not justify supporting a measure for which there was no review, no evaluation and no answers to questions asked. The Bush administration effectively said: "Trust Us" -- something I am wary to do.

The current crisis is complex. There is no single cause; there is no magic bullet. When faced with such a problem, I rely on my training as an investigator. Throughout this process I consulted with Republicans, Democrats, leading economists, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, my 8th District Economic Advisory Committee and numerous constituents. I continue gathering information today.

I approach this crisis with the underlying belief that the free market works, so long as there is transparency, accountability and enforcement of the laws to keep it free. As this package evolves, I'm fighting to ensure that it addresses the following:

Use more private capital: We must engage market forces to use more private capital, not taxpayer dollars.

Protect taxpayers: Private money should be spent first. If spending taxpayer dollars is necessary, it must be recouped; this money is a loan, not a purchase, and should be used as a case of last resort. Spending $700 billion must not jeopardize critical programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

Implement real oversight and accountability: The oversight board should be expanded to include the FDIC chairman, require additional congressional checks on the authority to spend billions of dollars, and should apply more stringent limits on executive compensation. No golden parachutes and no lavish corporate outings funded by taxpayers as we saw with AIG.

There are many broader challenges in our economy that we must address, including, lack of a comprehensive energy policy, skyrocketing health care costs, lack of an aggressive trade policy, an unfriendly tax structure for job creation and a regulatory system in banking and finance that is from a previous century.

In this time of crisis, we must avoid hasty action motivated by anxiety or the desire to score political points. We must reform, but a rush to regulate or enact sweeping changes without consideration of the consequences serves no one. Finally we must first focus on the task at hand, and assign blame later.

Through it all, we must maintain our confidence in the ingenuity of the American people to innovate in times of crisis, because we have come through tough times this way in the past. We are Americans, and we will prevail.

Source