Conservatives Fight To Protect Wall Street Big Wigs
Holding Wall Street Accountable For The Pain They Inflicted On Americans
After a decade of greedy and irresponsible behavior on Wall Street, the system finally gave way. The financial collapse of 2008 dragged the entire U.S. economy into the gutter, causing millions of Americans to lose their jobs.
As terrible as the crisis was, it could have been much worse. In what President Obama called a "distasteful but necessary thing to do," the Bush administration created the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to insert some degree of stability into the chaos of the financial sector.
Now that the worst is behind us, the big banks and financial institutions on Wall Street owe the American people billions of dollars. It is in that spirit that President Obama announced the Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee - a levy on the very same corporations whose greed inflicted so much pain on the nation.
Watch:
My commitment is to the taxpayer. My commitment is to recover every single dime the American people are owed. And my determination to achieve this goal is only heightened when I see reports of massive profits and obscene bonuses at some of the very firms who owe their continued existence to the American people -- folks who have not been made whole, and who continue to face real hardship in this recession.
We want our money back, and we're going to get it. And that's why I'm proposing a Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee to be imposed on major financial firms until the American people are fully compensated for the extraordinary assistance they provided to Wall Street. If these companies are in good enough shape to afford massive bonuses, they are surely in good enough shape to afford paying back every penny to taxpayers.
As Obama and progressives stand up to recover the money paid by hardworking Americans, conservatives are already showing signs they will fight to shield the Wall Street bankers who helped cause the crisis.
Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele insisted that banks - which wouldn't exist had it not been for the assistance from taxpayers - have already paid their fair share. Massachusetts' Scott Brown pledged to oppose the President's effort to recoup taxpayer money if he gets elected to the Senate.
House Republicans have come forward in opposition to holding the banks accountable, and a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee told the Wall Street Journal that fighting to recover TARP funds from the nation's largest banks was "tone-deaf."
As the debate over this issue moves forward, Americans will see who stands with the people. If Republicans believe protecting Wall Street is their key to endearing themselves to the American public, they're in for quite a surprise.
