This grants Secretary Paulson great authority. Who needs a Congress? I’ve put very interesting parts in bold and italics.
Text of Draft Proposal for Bailout Plan
Published: September 20, 2008
LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL FOR TREASURY AUTHORITY
TO PURCHASE MORTGAGE-RELATED ASSETS
Section 1. Short Title.
This Act may be cited as ____________________.
Sec. 2. Purchases of Mortgage-Related Assets.
(a) Authority to Purchase.–The Secretary is authorized to purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, on such terms and conditions as determined by the Secretary, mortgage-related assets from any financial institution having its headquarters in the United States.
(b) Necessary Actions.–The Secretary is authorized to take such actions as the Secretary deems necessary to carry out the authorities in this Act, including, without limitation:
(1) appointing such employees as may be required to carry out the authorities in this Act and defining their duties;
(2) entering into contracts, including contracts for services authorized by section 3109 of title 5, United States Code, without regard to any other provision of law regarding public contracts;
(3) designating financial institutions as financial agents of the Government, and they shall perform all such reasonable duties related to this Act as financial agents of the Government as may be required of them;
(4) establishing vehicles that are authorized, subject to supervision by the Secretary, to purchase mortgage-related assets and issue obligations; and
(5) issuing such regulations and other guidance as may be necessary or appropriate to define terms or carry out the authorities of this Act.
Sec. 3. Considerations.
In exercising the authorities granted in this Act, the Secretary shall take into consideration means for–
(1) providing stability or preventing disruption to the financial markets or banking system; and
(2) protecting the taxpayer.
Sec. 4. Reports to Congress.
Within three months of the first exercise of the authority granted in section 2(a), and semiannually thereafter, the Secretary shall report to the Committees on the Budget, Financial Services, and Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committees on the Budget, Finance, and Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the Senate with respect to the authorities exercised under this Act and the considerations required by section 3.
Sec. 5. Rights; Management; Sale of Mortgage-Related Assets.
(a) Exercise of Rights.–The Secretary may, at any time, exercise any rights received in connection with mortgage-related assets purchased under this Act.
(b) Management of Mortgage-Related Assets.–The Secretary shall have authority to manage mortgage-related assets purchased under this Act, including revenues and portfolio risks therefrom.
(c) Sale of Mortgage-Related Assets.–The Secretary may, at any time, upon terms and conditions and at prices determined by the Secretary, sell, or enter into securities loans, repurchase transactions or other financial transactions in regard to, any mortgage-related asset purchased under this Act.
(d) Application of Sunset to Mortgage-Related Assets.–The authority of the Secretary to hold any mortgage-related asset purchased under this Act before the termination date in section 9, or to purchase or fund the purchase of a mortgage-related asset under a commitment entered into before the termination date in section 9, is not subject to the provisions of section 9.
Sec. 6. Maximum Amount of Authorized Purchases.
The Secretary’s authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time
Sec. 7. Funding.
For the purpose of the authorities granted in this Act, and for the costs of administering those authorities, the Secretary may use the proceeds of the sale of any securities issued under chapter 31 of title 31, United States Code, and the purposes for which securities may be issued under chapter 31 of title 31, United States Code, are extended to include actions authorized by this Act, including the payment of administrative expenses. Any funds expended for actions authorized by this Act, including the payment of administrative expenses, shall be deemed appropriated at the time of such expenditure.
Sec. 8. Review.
Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.
Sec. 9. Termination of Authority.
The authorities under this Act, with the exception of authorities granted in sections 2(b)(5), 5 and 7, shall terminate two years from the date of enactment of this Act.
Sec. 10. Increase in Statutory Limit on the Public Debt.
Subsection (b) of section 3101 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking out the dollar limitation contained in such subsection and inserting in lieu thereof $11,315,000,000,000.
Sec. 11. Credit Reform.
The costs of purchases of mortgage-related assets made under section 2(a) of this Act shall be determined as provided under the Federal Credit Reform Act of 1990, as applicable.
Sec. 12. Definitions.
For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply:
(1) Mortgage-Related Assets.–The term “mortgage-related assets” means residential or commercial mortgages and any securities, obligations, or other instruments that are based on or related to such mortgages, that in each case was originated or issued on or before September 17, 2008.
(2) Secretary.–The term “Secretary” means the Secretary of the Treasury.
(3) United States.–The term “United States” means the States, territories, and possessions of the United States and the District of Columbia.
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Uhhh…I’ll have to check with my bookie, on the odds of how soon this will flop
if this passes, I am buying ammo, guns, potable water, and emergency food rations, period.
I am feeling seriously concerned for you guys in the USA. Your debt is increasing in unsustainable bubble proportions. I see a 1930′s Germany style collapse of the $. Your debt bubble is like all bubbles – tulips, South Sea, Dotcom, Housing, you can’t predict when it will burst……. but it will one day, next year, 5 years time, 10 years time, who knows? …….. but it will.
The whole plan to work must be above the law. Remember they were talking about recapitalizing the banks. Nothing in here about it. Why? The plan is to overpay for the assets so the banks can increase their capital. The taxpayers will lose on EVERY transaction. They can’t afford to have taxpayer groups suing them so they must be above the law. I think this whole week with stock trading was a set up to do this. Hitler had his Reichstag fire and Paulson has his short sellers. They must be stopped!
frustration on so many levels. I understand the value these institutions play to our growth as a nation, but it’s amazes me how much wealth was amassed in the so few hands of these bankers and how these companies were run into the ground taking the rest of the country with them. I don’t blame Greenspan, Cox, or any of them–but the fault must lie on the individual business leaders who were asleep at the wheel and over-leveraged their resources.
The part that makes me very nervous is that we seen this song before with this administration–we’re in a crisis and we HAVE TO HAVE near total authority to make things right. We gave this administration this type of authority in Iraq only to be caught in a war which is costing us a ton of money–mind you this is not the forum to argue whether we should be there or not-I’m just saying it’s costing us money. I liked the idea of executive compensation being linked to this. I will be livid if we as taxpayers pay 700 trillion, only to have the banking groups once again brag about how much they gave out in bonuses.
daily paper is more useful then WSJ and other garbage in explaining the recent tape
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09212008/business/almost_armageddon_130110.htm
King Paulson is not going to be happy when he reads this. You’re going to be given extra-unpleasant duties when he enslaves us all and forces us to work his underground T-bill-printing caves…
http://subprimeshowtime.wordpress.com/
I for one think he is the best King ever. Love live the King! (And Bailout Bernanke too.) They will save us from debt by creating more of it.
The house defeated this bill today Sept 28, 2008. But don’t rest too soon. For they will soon return with a new version to fool, not only the Congress but the masses themselves. Just as they did with the Federal Reserve Act. The were defeated the first time when they presented that bill in1913. But, they reworded it, disguised it as a savior bill, waited for Congress to adjourn for the Christmas Holiday, and when there was enough corrupt Congress Members present, they voted, and whala they had control of issuing our currency. All this while most of Congress were not even on Capitol Hill.
Keep in mind that Congress is adjourning for their election campaigns in five weeks. What will the rats do while Congress is away this time.
If you are not aware, this bill has nothing to do with a financial bail out of banks. It too is a smoke and mirrors bill, just like the Federal Reserve Act. Why do you think they changed the name of the Central Banking Act to the Federal Reserve Act? No one wanted a Central Bank issuing our currency! So, they deceived the public and many of the politicians by using wording in their bill such as “Federal” yet they are a private corporation of banks, they used “Reserve” yet they had no backing of any means, they used the word “System” instead of Central Bank.
Yet, now we all know that the Federal Reserve System is a private banking system consisting of 12 banks all owned by private individuals. And this is what they cause.
The bill is needed to save the Federal Reserve System, not us the people, or our property or our well being. They need it because without it, their system as it is now, will start to fall apart and be exposed to the American people as the fraud and scam that it is. Nothing more.
The Federal Reserve System will fall without this bail out, so please be very careful to not let up on your Congressman or Woman, and let them know that we will not save the bankers or the Wall Street criminals or their banking system that has enslaved so many.
Note: They already attempted, a little late, to reword this bill if you will remember.
On September 19, 2008 the mainstream media and the politicians called this a $700 Billion Dollar Bail Out Bill. Once the opposition to such corruption was realized, they immediately reworded it to say ” $700 Billion Dollar Rescue Plan”.
They are at it again, only now more and more people are ware of their practices and realize how much money we as a nation have been robbed by their system.
The Federal Reserve System must be abolished in order to ever survive as a nation.
I think we as a people are starting to realize that more and more.
Believe me, George, we’re watching them (and calling and faxing and…..) and the FRB needs to be abolished.