Hodes on Plan to Prevent Taxpayer-Funded Wall Street Bailouts

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November 17, 2009 -- Washington, DC -- Today, Congressman Hodes introduced and passed an amendment to financial industry reform legislation that would prevent more taxpayer-funded bailouts from occurring in the future. Congressman Hodes offered his amendment to the Financial Stability Improvement Act of 2009 in order to ensure that taxpayers are never again forced to pay for the reckless mistakes of Wall Street executives. The Financial Services Committee passed the amendment unanimously.

"Wall Street companies and executives should have to pay for their own mistakes," said Congressman Paul Hodes. "New Hampshire’s responsible working families should never have to reach into their own pockets to bail out Wall Street corporations that gambled away retirement and education funds. Stopping the bailouts before they start is the right way to go — it puts Main Street first and makes it absolutely clear that taxpayers will not have to foot the bill if Wall Street gets itself into trouble."

Congressman Hodes’ amendment would prohibit taxpayer dollars from funding bailouts of non-bank financial institutions like American Insurance Group (AIG). The costs to dissolve a non-bank financial institution would be covered by the failing business’ assets and shareholders, and not by taxpayers. Taxpayer dollars could not be used under any circumstances to revive a failing non-bank financial institution.

"Last year’s Wall Street bailout sent billions of hard earned taxpayer dollars to Wall Street while leaving Main Street to suffer," added Congressman Hodes. "Families continue to struggle with mortgage payments, credit markets remain tight, and nobody can say exactly where all of the bailout money went. Taxpayer funded bailouts for Wall Street must be a thing of the past."

Source: Congressman Paul Hodes