News Release

Campaign For America's Future Calls For Transparency and Accountability Before Second Installment of Bank Bailout Is Released

Contacts: Rachel Perrone or Jennifer Ettinger, (202) 587-1639

WASHINGTON – In light of President-elect Barack Obama’s meeting with Senate Democrats to discuss releasing the second portion of the $700 billion economic stimulus package, the Campaign for America’s Future co-director Robert Borosage today stressed the need for greater transparency and accountability.

The following can be attributed to Campaign for America’s Future co-director Robert Borosage:

“The American people deserve to know certain protections will be in place before any more money is given to Wall Street, including limits on dividends, executive compensation and bonuses; mandates on Main Street lending, including foreclosure relief and aid for beleaguered homeowners; assistance for student and other consumer loans; and perhaps most importantly, greater transparency.

“Progressives support strategies aimed at stabilizing the economy, but any successful strategy must come with guarantees of transparency, oversight and accountability. This has been made abundantly clear by the haphazard way President Bush handled the first installment of this $700 billion bailout package. The Bush administration spent $350 billion in taxpayer dollars blind – a mistake we can hardly afford to repeat.

“Even these protections, however, are insufficient if Congress and the administration don’t get a grip on private deals being made the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury. They must work in concert to reestablish a publicly accountable process of regulating the banking system.

“We see now where eight years of a Bush administration policy of deregulation and laissez faire economics has gotten us. It’s time to rein in an out-of-control banking system that has left average Americans out in the cold, with a targeted stimulus program that will create a stronger, more tightly regulated economic system.”