“The sky is not falling,” declares Rep. John Shadegg, and Congress will act to deal with the economic crisis without giving Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson a “blank check.”
The Arizona Republican writes in Monday’s USA Today: “Every Republican who voted against the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act on Monday believes that Congress must address this crisis. They take it seriously and stand ready to vote for reasonable legislation…
“Paulson’s $700 billion plan was fundamentally flawed. The bill asked for a blank check. It did not specify which assets could be purchased or the procedure by which they would be purchased…
“Secretary Paulson is getting a lesson in civics. The world he has entered is different than the wheeling-and-dealing Goldman Sachs world where he made his fortune.”
Shadegg called for the suspension of the “mark to market” accounting rule that requires mortgage-backed securities to be valued at “fire-sale prices.” That would help prevent the current crisis from reoccurring, but Shadegg said it is “incomprehensible” that Paulson and Congressional Democrats refused to include such a provision in the bill.
He also called for an increase in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s $100,000 limit on coverage to alleviate the concerns of millions of Americans, and said “it’s hard to imagine why anyone would oppose such a change.”
Rep. Shadegg, who was first elected in 1994 and has held a number of GOP leadership positions in the House, concluded: “We have ample time to reach an acceptable compromise if all parties act in good faith. The Democratic House majority can move to reconsider its bill if Speaker Nancy Pelosi will allow an amendment to improve it by making changes, including those I have outlined.
“This market can be solved in the very near future, and the market will come back.”
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