Taxpayer Groups Sign Coalition Letter Opposing Dodd-Countrywide Mortgage Bailout Bill
As the Dodd-Countrywide mortgage bailout bill comes to the Senate floor this week for debate, leading taxpayer advocates stand in opposition to the legislation.
The Dodd-Countrywide bill would create $300 billion in new taxpayer liabilities, allow banks to dump their worst performing and riskiest loans onto the FHA, and create a $500 million new tax on GSEs to fund a permanent new spending program.
FreedomWorks joined the American Conservative Union, Americans for Tax Reform, Citizens Against Government Waste, Club for Growth, Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the National Taxpayers Union in a coalition letter to Senators urging them to reject the Dodd-Countrywide bailout bill.
The coalition letter stated:
“The Dodd plan creates a new housing trust fund that will collect more than $530 million a year through a new levy on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The trust fund in turn makes these funds available to politically active community groups like ACORN outside the normal appropriations oversight.
In addition, the Dodd plan creates a new $300 billion facility that allows mortgage lenders to cherry-pick their worst performing loans and roll them into the FHA, shifting 100 percent of the loan liability to the taxpayer.”
The letter was supported by findings released earlier this week by the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) scoring of the Dodd-Frank legislation. The CBO predicts that banks will offload their “highest-risk loans” to the taxpayer, the reports also projects that a shocking 35 percent of the loans refinanced through the program will eventually default anyway at a loss to the taxpayer.
To view the coalition letter, please visit:
http://www.freedomworks.org/uploads/dodd-frank-coalition.pdf
