Bailout Nation Update: Toomey Calls on Specter & Sestak to Join Bipartisan Move to End the Wall Street Bailout

By TOOMEY FOR SENATE

Allentown, PA – A bipartisan group of U.S. senators and representatives is urging Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to let the TARP program expire at the end of the year instead of extending it and spending billions more taxpayer dollars on bailouts of Wall Street and other financial industry firms.

In the Senate, thirty-nine Republicans and one Democrat signed a letter last week. In the House, at least twelve Democrats and two Republicans signed a similar letter yesterday.

The critical question for Pennsylvania taxpayers is:Why aren’t Senator Arlen Specter and Congressman Joe Sestak standing up for us and joining their bipartisan colleagues in demanding an end to the bailouts? Rather than calling for an end to the extreme policies of Wall Street bailouts and sky-rocketing debt, Specter and Sestak continue to stick hard-working Pennsylvanians with the bill for the failures of corporate giants.

Both Specter and Sestak voted in favor of the TARP bailout program in October of 2008 (RC #213, RC #681). The $700 billion bailout program is scheduled to expire on December 31, 2009 unless Secretary Geithner decides to extend it for another year. With the deficit growing, the country’s debit soaring, and a lack of oversight plaguing the program, more bailouts are the last thing taxpayers need. Already, Secretary Geithner has asked the Senate to raise the country’s debt ceiling above its current limit of $12.1 trillion.

“With TARP scheduled to expire, the country faces a crossroads: Continue down the current path of unsustainable debt or start to wean our politicians off their bailout addiction,” said U.S. Senate candidate Pat Toomey. “There is a clear and bipartisan call for an end to more bailouts and debt. I urge Senator Specter and Congressman Sestak to reject the extreme policies championed by the far-left wing of the Democratic Party and join their colleagues in signing the two letters to Secretary Geithner. Pennsylvania taxpayers and future generations of Pennsylvanians deserve responsible leadership, not another year of bailouts.”

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September 24, 2009 at 9:06 am

--pa2010.com Staff