[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 458-459]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           THE NATIONAL DEBT

  Mr. JOHANNS. Madam President, I rise today to speak in support of a 
pending amendment. This amendment is called the Erasing Our National 
Debt Through Accountability and Responsibility Plan. I wish to start 
out today by saying I am very proud to be a cosponsor of what I 
consider to be a very commonsense amendment.
  The Troubled Asset Relief Program, known as TARP, was enacted in the 
fall of 2008 for the U.S. Treasury to buy toxic assets, primarily 
mortgage-backed securities. It was sold to Congress as having a sole 
purpose of getting bad assets out of the market. It

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was sold as an idea of stabilizing the economy. At the time this was 
sold, this was it. This is what we told people this was going to do. 
Supposedly, it was going to be a one-time, very narrowly focused 
program during a time of the worst economic crisis we had seen in 
decades. Lawmakers at that time were warned that if we do not act now, 
if we do not take this action, the failure to act is going to be 
devastating. Yet Washington, after it got approval of this plan, almost 
immediately threw out the original game plan. Money was not used to buy 
those troubled assets. Instead, it was given to large banks with very 
few strings attached. The government hoped banks would generate small 
business loans, and would send the money out to allow people to do auto 
loans and mortgage loans. That simply did not happen. There is plenty 
of finger-pointing going on as to why that did not happen, but the 
bottom line is that consumers were left to battle the credit crunch 
alone, and they felt abandoned in their fight. What did Washington 
expect when it gave away practically free money? From the get-go, the 
TARP rule book was simply tossed out the window. Since then, TARP has 
morphed in so many ways that most people cannot even remember, cannot 
even think about its original purpose.
  The American people have unquestionably lost faith in the $700-
billion taxpayer-funded boondoggle. They expected it to get the economy 
up and lending. Now they feel duped, and I do not blame them. Instead 
of jump-starting lending in the economy, what this has turned into is a 
revolving slush fund for unrelated spending projects. It just goes on 
and on.
  Let me run through a sample of what TARP has been used to fund:
  No. 1, buy General Motors. Who knew that the U.S. Government would 
spend about $50 billion of TARP buying not only an ownership interest 
in General Motors but a controlling interest? Back home in Nebraska, 
when I have talked to Nebraska citizens about this, I say to them: If I 
had come out during my campaign and suggested that the President of the 
United States would literally over a weekend have the ability to buy 
General Motors without any kind of congressional approval, no one--no 
one--would have believed me. Yet that is exactly what happened.
  No. 2, there is a plan called cash for caulkers. We all know about 
that plan.
  No. 3, the House passed a second stimulus--$150 billion in TARP to 
fund more unrelated spending. Let me give a few examples: $800 million 
for Amtrak; $65 million for housing vouchers; $500 million for summer 
youth employment; $300 million for a college work study program.
  No. 4, the doc fix--$\1/4\ trillion in TARP that will never be paid 
back, an immediate loss to the taxpayers.
  No. 5, off-budget highway funding.
  I could go on and on. The list just does not end. The projects being 
funded out of this now new slush fund do not seem to have an ending 
point. Some of these projects might be quite meritorious. One might 
look at them and say: Gosh, in the normal budgetary process, I would 
want to be a part of voting for those projects. I might support some of 
them in the normal budgeting process but not through some no 
accountability slush fund.
  TARP has spiraled out of control, and it needs to end today--
immediately. TARP was never intended to finance a wide array of 
spending programs where the taxpayer literally was going to be the 
loser. We must find a way to pay for government spending, not try to 
disguise it in TARP.
  I am asking my colleagues to adopt the Thune amendment and end the 
no-accountability TARP slush fund. This amendment would immediately 
stop the Treasury Department from spending more from the TARP funds. It 
would repeal the administration's ill-advised extension of TARP through 
October 2010. It would require TARP repayments to reduce our national 
debt. There would be no clever statutory interpretations to get around 
the debt reduction requirement. A payment comes in, the debt ceiling 
goes down. No more reckless spending. No more Russian roulette with 
taxpayers' money. Not only is this common sense, but it is good fiscal 
sense, and it is the right thing to do.
  One thing is absolutely obvious: Taxpayers are asking us to work 
together to get deficit spending under control, to find solutions to 
problems that trouble this great Nation. This amendment, in my 
judgment, is absolutely the first step, a good start to get a handle on 
out-of-control spending, to start restoring faith with the American 
people. If TARP is ended, we show the American people that we are 
listening and that Congress is, in fact, serious about protecting 
taxpayers' money.
  Madam President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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