By Rep. Darrell Issa on 9.10.09 @ 6:08AM
What are bailout recipients doing with the money they've
received? The Obama administration doesn't want you know.
The concern among the American people about the size and cost of
government continues to grow, and the Obama administration is
beginning to experience a crisis of confidence doubtlessly owed
to its aggressive expansion of the federal bureaucracy and
deepening of the national debt. Members of Congress -- who have
the power of the purse in our constitutional democracy -- know
that we answer, ultimately, to the voters for the way that
taxpayer dollars are spent. That's why Congress created the
Office of Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief
Program (SIGTARP) to monitor the way Treasury spends the $700
billion bailout program.
Back in April, Congress learned that Treasury pursued a formal
opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel of the Department of
Justice in an effort to limit SIGTARP Neil Barofsky's
independence and bring him under the direct supervision of
Secretary Geithner. In July, the House Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform heard testimony from SIGTARP Barofsky that
highlighted the Treasury Department's failures to protect
taxpayers from the kind of fraud that undermines the American
people's faith in their government.
Americans instinctively love their country, but they don't really
like their government. Indeed, James Madison's classic line from
Federalist 51 -- "if men were angels, there would be no need for
government" -- presupposes the impossibility of a perfect
government and leaves the people with, at best, the hope of a
good government.
By good government, Americans mean a government limited in size
and honest in action. Without independent oversight of the
administration, the taxpaying public would have no guarantee that
their hard-earned money -- reluctantly forfeited in the form of
taxes to support the work of government -- is well spent.
Americans have no patience for wasteful government, and they are
acutely aware that the less transparent the government, the worse
it will be.
When President Obama came to office, he promised an
administration with "the highest degree of accountability and
transparency possible." As a presidential candidate, Mr. Obama
railed against the Bush Administration's "failure to track how
the money has been spent."
Yet Americans are learning from SIGTARP Barofsky that they will
not be told what TARP recipients are doing with bailout money,
how much their substantial investments are worth, or how their
money is being invested. The shroud of secrecy that the Obama
administration has attempted to place over its bailout efforts is
a brazen act of executive usurpation and political doublespeak.
It is also an affront to democracy itself.
For democracy is the expression of popular sovereignty, namely,
that the only good governments are those that reflect the will of
the people and the rule of law. Exit polls from last year's
election demonstrated that the people elected Barack Obama, in
part, because they wanted more accountability and transparency in
Washington. They wanted a change from secret deals to spend
billions of tax dollars without any thought of a crushing
national debt. They wanted the windows of government thrown open
so that liberty's fresh air could reinvigorate the nation,
economically and politically.
On too many fronts the Obama administration has broken its
promise of change. Attempts to limit the autonomy and authority
of SIGTARP are but another instance of the brass-knuckled
politics that the Senator from Chicago brought with him to 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue. Neil Barofsky has done a great service to
his country by refusing to roll.
topics:
TARP, Neil Barofsky
