T.A.R.P, Recovery Plan, Term Limits Action…All Obscured Under the Cover of Media Hoopla

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

What’s been going on under cover of the media’s endless coverage of an airline incident in NY and the Inauguration hoopla?

While the plane floated in the Hudson River,  the Senate passed the remaining $350 billion in T.A.R.P. expenditures.  Since it would have been necessary for both House and Senate to vote down this measure, the funding is now assured and already in process.

Just to be certain their tight vote passed,  Roland Burris was sworn in early that day and Joe Biden withheld his own resignation from the Senate until day’s end, after the vote. You won’t see reports of such maneuvers in the MSM, but we’ve have to expect them to continue as this Administration gets into gear.

Speaker Pelosi, for instance, appears to be planning a re-interpretation of House Rules to serve the purpose of “dead of night” measures to circumvent opposition. Rumors indicates she hopes to start taxing Americans’ retirement funds, while evidence is clear she remains a strong backer of ACORN, according to the Center for Individual Freedom. Founded in 1998, this organization tends to focus on Republican and libertarian values and is part of the Townhall.com consortium.  These days, however, we find ourselves having to at least look at information sources other than the MSM, even if they are in the “other” camp.

From CFIF.org:

On the very first day of Congress, Pelosi pushed through a change to a House rule known as the “motion to recommit,” a rule that was implemented a CENTURY AGO specifically to PROHIBIT the leadership of the majority party from railroading horrendous legislation through Congress under the cover of darkness.

(SNIP)

Nancy Pelosi changed her tune on a great many things once she assumed the position of Speaker of the House.

Two years ago, she said; “Bills should generally come to the floor under a procedure that allows open, full and fair debate consisting of a full amendment process that grants the minority the right to offer its alternatives, including a substitute.”

Even the liberal Washington Post could not help but comment on Pelosi’s blatant hypocrisy and her apparent rush to change the rules when it comes to transparency and openness:

“When they took over in 2007, Democrats set aside their pledge in order to muscle through their agenda during the first 100 hours; their promises continued to prove hollow in the ensuing months…. Democrats brought more measures to the House floor under closed rules – permitting no amendments – than any of the six previous Republican-controlled congresses.”

Check out this post at The Swine Line, the blog  of  Citizens Against Government Waste,  for more detailed discussion.  I’ve extracted the links to the House Appropriations Committee documents from the post:

Spending package/Recovery Bill http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/RecoveryBill01-15-09.pdf

Report language http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/RecoveryReport01-15-09.pdf

The question that remains related to T.A.R.P. is what will the House of Representatives do to regulate its distribution and oversight. Barney Frank, Democratic Chair of the Banking Committee has presented a bill which claims to serve that purpose. This bill is subject to a vote as early as this week, following the Inauguration.

H.R.384
Title: To reform the Troubled Assets Relief Program of the Secretary of the Treasury and ensure accountability under such Program.

Additional information on the bill, including cost estimates, text, amendments, etc: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:HR00384:@@@

Of even greater concern, however,are the currently nebulous contents of the “Obama Recovery Plan.” Expected to multiply the initial costs of T.A.R.P., this package of ten bills is currently a mere shell for the insertion of who knows just what. Apparently, all the Obama rhetoric has yet to be magically transformed into substance. By contrast, another bill also introduced on January 7, to discourage teen pregnancy is four pages long – offering an amount of detail greater than the 10 sketchy Recovery bills combined! Yet the headers of this package portend sweeping changes in almost every aspect of American life. One, for instance, with a header related to “Fairness” for the middle class (?) includes, on its short list of potential laws, a brief reference to CardCheck (Pelosi and ACORN’s approach to storming small businesses with mandated unions, initiated with the peer pressure of no secret ballot.) Note that this is  just one  item on a longer list on one bill of ten! For a review of the massive scope but lack of content of this “Recovery Plan” see here:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/d?d111:0:./list/bss/d111SN.lst TOM:/bss/111search.html|

There’s every indication the Democratic power-party is preparing for diverse back room deals and dead of night maneuvers to turn our country’s standards and laws upside down as quickly as possible – all with the blessings of a co-operative Mass Media which is committed to informing citizens about as little as possible of what is going on.

Take, for instance, the re-introduction of a Resolution of January 6 by Rep. José Serrano (D-NY) to eliminate term limits on the Presidency. The history of its prior introduction (1995 to 2007) has been weak. To grasp the orientation of Rep. Serrano),  just look to some other bills he introduced that day: to provide federal funding for clean needles to drug addicts (with 31 co-sponsors) and to end our trade embargo on Castro. This time around, the threat of ending term limits has meat on its bones – cosponsored, as it is, by Barney Frank. What, may we ask, is the head of the Banking Committee thinking to sponsor a bill extending Obama’s term in office – with no limits?! (Please note; Rep. Frank’s co-sponsorship is dated November 2008 but buried in the record of an earlier record of the measure. Just an error?)

Here’s the bill: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=hj111-5

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