Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has announced plans to extend the $700 billion TARP program through next October.  The bailout program has strayed wildly from its original purpose of providing short-term support and stability for the financial system.  TARP was intended to address a crisis in our financial markets, and it was understood that American taxpayers would be repaid once the immediate crisis subsided. 

 

I have pushed Secretary Geithner to unwind this program immediately and to dedicate all repaid funds to reducing the federal government’s record deficit.  As recently as September, Secretary Geithner assured me that repaid TARP funds would be used for deficit reduction.  Now the Obama Administration and the liberal leadership in Congress want to use TARP funds to pay for additional stimulus spending, while saddling us with more growth-stifling debt.

 

The United States currently faces an urgent fiscal crisis, and if we do not stop spending money, we risk moving further down an unrecoverable path.  As a dedicated fiscal conservative, I will continue pressing to use TARP funds to pay down the $12.1 trillion national debt.  I have signed a letter addressed to Speaker Pelosi urging her to use the TARP funds to pay down the debt instead of a revolving slush fund to promote the liberal agenda. The Republican alternative to the bill would simply end TARP and require that TARP funds go towards debt reduction.

 

House conservatives believe that the best way to stimulate the economy is to cut taxes and spending drastically. It is time to start trusting and empowering individual Americans instead of the federal government. It is time to let Americans keep more of what they earn and for the government to spend less.  I believe that by taking these steps, our economy will experience the growth and prosperity that have defined America for generations. 

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