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Posted on 11/16/2008 7:18:28 PM PST by Pantera
WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe said Saturday that Congress was not told the truth about the bailout of the nation's financial system and should take back what is left of the $700 billion "blank check'' it gave the Bush administration.
"It is just outrageous that the American people don't know that Congress doesn't know how much money he (Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson) has given away to anyone,'' the Oklahoma Republican told the Tulsa World.
"It could be to his friends. It could be to anybody else. We don't know. There is no way of knowing.''
Inhofe's comments, unusually pointed even for a senator known for being blunt, come on the heels of Paulson's shift in how he thinks the bailout funds should be spent.
Last week the Treasury secretary announced he was abandoning his plan to free up the nation's credit system by buying up toxic assets from troubled financial institutions. Instead, Paulson wants to take a more direct action on the consumer credit front.
"He was able to get this authority from Congress predicated on what he was going to do, and then he didn't do it,'' Inhofe said.
"So, that's enough reason right there.''
Inhofe recalled earlier comments opposing Paulson's plan because the administration's point man did not have answers for a number of questions. He also recalled questioning the rush to get the bailout passed.
"I have learned a long time ago. When they come up and say this has to be done and has to be done immediately, there is no other way of doing it, you have to sit back and take a deep breath and nine times out of 10 they are not telling the truth,'' he said.
"And this is one of those nine times.''
Inhofe has laid out his legislative plans for this week on the bailout package in a letter to his Senate colleagues.
He wants to freeze what is left of the initial $350 billion — reportedly $60 billion, but Inhofe concedes he does not know for sure.
Then he wants a provision requiring an affirmative vote by Congress before Paulson can get his hands on the second $350 billion of bailout money.
Current law lays out a scenario where President Bush submits a plan on the second half of the funding.
Lawmakers have 15 days to disapprove it, but Inhofe questions that wording.
"Congress abdicated its constitutional responsibility by signing a truly blank check over to the Treasury Secretary,'' he wrote.
"However, the lame duck session of Congress offers us a tremendous opportunity to change course. We should take it.''
In the interview, the senator said his plans can provide "redemption'' for those senators who supported Paulson.
Inhofe's plan appears to be a long shot at this point. Senators originally approved the bailout plan by a 74-25 vote.
He does not know how much support he has among his Republican colleagues, and he concedes Democratic leaders could block it.
Bush also could veto it if it were to make it out of Congress.
Neither Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office nor the Treasury Department commented.
Reid, D-Nev., wants to use the upcoming lame duck session to push economic issues such as extending unemployment benefits and aid to the nation's ailing auto industry.
Inhofe opposes both.
"You don't stimulate the economy by giving away more money,'' he said.
In response to concerns expressed by some that allowing even one of the big automakers to fail would be too much of an economic hit for the nation, Inhofe said reality must be accepted.
"If we keep on nursing a broken system, then we can't expect to have a different result come later on,'' he said.
"I just think we have to draw the line someplace, and the time is here.''
I love Senator Inhofe!!! He is my adopted Senator, since AR has Pryor and Lincoln! I know Sen Inhofe personally and he nick named me “flower girl” cause I sent him some flowers when he landed his plane without the front prop when it “fell” off!
Even if it has not a hope in hades of passing, I wish he’d push it as far as possible, just to put the thieves on the spot and get their names on a list.
That and reverse all of the deals paulson the dictator made for his friend. Get the money back!
Bill
I love Senator Inhofe too, for his stellar work on “global warming”. His re-election was the one bright spot of this dismal election.
They threatened us with recession and massive job losses if we didn’t bail them out. Now it looks like we’re still going to have recession and massive job losses but the taxpayer gets the added bonus of being 2.5 trillion dollars in debt.
bttt
The good citizens of Oklahoma gave him the nod for 6 more years.
He’s going to raise hell.
George W. Bush and Hank Paulson are the biggest thieves in American history.
Is Paulson authorized to give the money back to the taxpayers? That would be the best way to take direct action on the consumer credit front. Let's see, 300M people, say 150M taxpayers and their dependents. $350B left, or a little over $1100 per taxpayer and dependents. A family of 5 could help their own credit situation with $5500!
ping
I think he may have been the only person I voted for who won in this election, Thank G-d there are still a few like him.
Inhofe bump!!
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bHo and John McCain have assured us it is the right think go do!
Just like the S&L money. Where (who to) did that go?
Where is the money now? No answers.
Someone wants lots of money and personally I think
it all began with Fannie & Freddie crap. Maybe most of it went to O, nah, that couldn’t happen, could it?
Clinto, Bwaney were major factors. We know how many times they were told
things were not right.
I may be wrong, but I think Bush was just clueless. He did make an effort to rein in Fannie Mae earlier, but I don't think he had any idea what was building.
And I think he made a huge mistake naming Paulson Treasury Secretary. Now the media can say that it's "the Bush administration" that is spending unaccountable money, and indeed Bush shares the blame. But in fact Paulson has clearly been working for Obama, not Bush. In fact the whole point of the exercise was to produce a sudden October surprise, for which Bush and McCain were completely unprepared--but Pelosi, Reid, and Obama clearly knew what was coming, because Paulson alerted them.
Thus Paulson tipped the election, IMHO. And, at the same time, enriched his friends in the business. Maybe Bush is much smarter than I think. But I think he had the wool pulled over his eyes, and was persuaded to make yet another disastrous appointment of someone basically disloyal to him.
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