Consumer Protection
Watching Out for Consumers
It is not the government's
role to get involved in so many costly bailouts. We have bailed out
broken banks, broken car companies and broken mortgage giants. We
have given these failed entities a government credit card with no
spending limit, and few rules for how money is spent or saved. We
now have bailed-out banks that won't loan you or your employers any
money, and they think their business should be shrouded in secrecy.
Thanks to the rushed bank bailout, which I opposed, only the 20
biggest recipients of your money have to file reports outlining
what they're doing with your money; the other 297 recipients have
no such requirement.
The automakers want you to trust that they'll spend your money
wisely and then turn around and pay $3,000-an-hour in consulting
fees to a former, failed CEO. If anyone
has benefitted even slightly from the bailout of mortgage giants
Freddie and Fannie, they're keeping it to themselves. This madness
has to end. If you want to create jobs and opportunity, bailouts
and grab-bag stimulus plans are not the answer. In my district, the
Administration actually bragged that it was able to save or create
126 jobs using $100 million of your money. A high school economics
class could come up with a better plan. Jobs are created by the
private sector, by small businesses and start-up companies infused
with the entrepreneurial spirit. The Administration needs to
recognize this and right the ship.
We know Wall Street and the banks imploded in the fall of 2008,
and we need to examine what happened and make common-sense changes
to protect our economy and ensure this never happens again. We
shouldn't under-regulate, but we shouldn't over-regulate to the
point where capitalism cannot function. We cannot continue to rush
through massive bills and then scramble to fix the unintended
consequences - like protecting Wall Street bonuses, giving tax
breaks to the manufacturers of toy wooden arrows and shielding
special deals from scrutiny.
Solutions must be bipartisan and in the nation's best interests.
No one party holds a patent on good ideas, yet it often seems that
way. Washington is stuffed to the gills with former Goldman Sachs
and Wall Street know-it-alls who are more interested in protecting
their bonuses and salaries than the average Joe who saw his 401K
wiped out. They are like teenagers who break curfew three times and
tearfully promise it will never happen, and then sneak out of the
house at midnight and take the car. We're either going to turn a
blind eye to this financial chicanery, or make the bad players
accountable.
Finally, I will continue to support legislation that protects
consumers, and proudly supported credit card reforms that ended all
kind of shady practices and outrageous fees. I also have been a
leading author of identify theft protection legislation.
Included in those bills was a provision allowing anyone to get a
free credit report each year though www.annualcreditreport.com.
While there are other sites out there that tout "free" reports,
including some with catchy theme songs, don't be duped into signing
up for any program that charges monthly fees for so-called extra
protections from identity theft.