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Dec18
Congressman John Yarmuth Proposes $20 Billion in Small Business Loans from Leftover Bank Bailout Funds
3 CommentsPosted December 18th, 2009 6:02 am
Louisville Democratic U.S. Congressman John Yarmuth has proposed that federal money be spent to loan to small businesses. The very same small businesses who have been ignored by the banks bailed out with 3/4 of a trillion dollars in 2008. Those banks used the billions to buy up troubled competitors, to loan to international clients, and to shore up their bottom lines. Then, once the storm passed, they returned the funds, proceeded back to their pattern of bonus payments for bank employees, and promptly shut down any lending to the very Americans who desperately needed access to credit restored.
$20 billion in the federal budget for small businesses is substantial. The Courier-Journal reports:
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Under last fall’s original bank aid plan, Yarmuth said in an interview Monday, “the idea was stabilize the economy and … we hoped that by offering money to banks that they would turn around and lend it. They didn’t do that.”
Making a portion of the money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program available now for small business loans answers a need that still is out there, he said.
“There are a lot of people out there who see opportunities but can’t get credit to do it,” the Louisville congressman said. “There are also people who say, ‘If I could refinance a loan, because the interest rates are good, I could hire more people.’ ”
The Obama administration last week estimated that about $200 billion for troubled banks was unused.
Yarmuth said House Democratic leaders wanted his bill to be part of the deliberations this week over what should be in a package that also may include increased unemployment benefits, aid for more infrastructure projects and assistance to state and local governments.While there are some places where the Democratic Party has lost its moral and political compass, helping the American people through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression is not one of those areas. The country could very possibly have shuddered into another depression if a Herbert Hooveresque Republican president had stayed the course until long after the chance to correct had passed. None embody that true north of Democratic values better than Congressman John Yarmuth.
3 Responses to “Congressman John Yarmuth Proposes $20 Billion in Small Business Loans from Leftover Bank Bailout Funds”
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LumberJock December 18th, 2009 at 9:24 am
It’s time to understand the dynamics of our political tension.
The essence of republicanism is repeal of all vestiges of the New Deal and the social equity legislation that followed as our culture became more alert to inequities as well as financial and social irregularities within the culture. They have as their vision the social & financial structures of the “gay 90’s” of the 19th century. That period of Mellon, vanderBilt, Morgan & Rockefeller reigning over the economy, homes maintained by a force of servants, unregulated commerce and finance. Women & the social minorities were either in the closet or accepting their second-class (or lower) status without question. In those days, women & people of color had no vote, ‘legal’ rights were an extension of property ownership, only white males sat on juries or held elective office – and most importantly – there was neither taxation of wealth nor regulation of economic behavior.
There is no rationale to include them in the legislative process. Send a briefing officer over to their cacaus twice daily; permit them to exercise their parlimentary maneuvering (recognizing and re-enforcing their minority status) to emphasize their impotence and run roughshod over them like they did the Democrats in the 90’s. It’s time to treat them now like we were treated then or they will get up again and do to us thrice what they did before.
These politicians from the new right & neo-conserv’s will not even interrogate detainees if they win again. They have a plan in the notebook and the shadow government in place with the mission and objective in mind and the motivation and skills to deliver a 1-party hegemony that will make Hamas and alQuaeda look like Santa Claus. The mean-spirited christian coalition, fundamentalist revolution and their charasmatic brother- & sister- hoods will have control of the borders, banks, regulatory agencies, police departments and courts. There will be no quarter given; no questions will be asked – if not a part of their solution, one will be relegated to second-class status; all rights will be extensions of property ownership and non-Xians will be refused the opportunity to own property.
This group of people are ashamed that we’ve had such ‘low-born’ presidents as Clinton & O’Bama. By taxing wealth our system regulates the accumulation of wealth by all sources; they would have us tax consumption which punishes poverty and rewards wealth. They will stifle government with budget restraints, reduced manning tables, lowered academic eligibility requirements and raised religious requirements.
Some of this is seen in the evolution of TVA under reagan & bush(43) fromer providing power & agricultural support to being the standard bearing organization on exploiting fossil fuels.
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I am heartened to see that Yarmuth is still trying to serve the people but am appalled that we all believe that $20 billion is a lot of money in the face of the 3/4 TRILLION that the people had to put up to save the moneyed interests in our country. We, most of us, do not work for large banks or even large corporations, yet our nation is so structured that the same banks that contributed to the financial fiasco that cost us our jobs and who are repossessing our cars and foreclosing on our homes are kept afloat in a sea of public money yet there is not a drop for us. Ours is a desert of hope with only our own sweat to drink.
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You’re right. In that respect, I think both sides of the aisle share the same sort of guttural frustration that the tea party movement is trying to harness. But at least liberals are realizing that the return of those funds provides some a chance to make something good happen. It is much less than the 3/4 trillion. And it would also be very appropriate to figure out a way to funnel some of those funds into homeowner rescue financing. But anything that steps into the lending void that the suddenly conservative banks have created is still welcome.
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