In my weeks of research into understanding how America went from economic lynchpin to a wayward ship drifting on a sea of economic trouble, I find myself baffled and appalled by statements from Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT), Chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. His anger seems real enough. But the stench of hypocrisy reeks up the room every time he forgets to mention the hundreds of thousands of dollars he received in 2008 as campaign donations from these same banks, their management and employees--currently now under receivership of the U.S. taxpayer.
But Sen. Dodd is not alone. He and the biggest names in American politics, including President Barack Obama, are quickly becoming poster children for "moral hazard" and pay-to-play politics. Slap-dash legislation with little or no oversight, by the Bush Administration, rubber-stamped by top Democratic politicians, seems to have made problems worse, not better. Banks are hoarding bailout money, and its not getting down to consumers.
Dodd's Senate committee--arguably one of the most powerful--created and oversees the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)--the $700 billion dollar bailout of financial institutions--caught up in the sub-mortgage meltdown.
From all indications and reports, TARP has been universally acclaimed a failure-in-progress and bad news reports have angered large cross sections of America. Dodd and his committee seem powerless to reign in the titans of American finance and industry--despite widespread capital infusions from Congress. Unemployment is moving towards double digits and banks haven't begun to unfreeze consumer credit, although a moratorium on mortgage foreclosures was set in place.
But the Senior Senator from Connecticut who said he personally turned a four-page draft into 80-plus pages of legislation that was passed, has crossed an ethical line. While he was crafting legislation to rescue his friends, Dodd "received $854,200 from the T.A.R.P. companies in the 2008 election cycle, including money to his presidential campaign" according to a recent Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) report.
And just this week, Dodd's name surfaced again as recipient of $27,500 in campaign cash from the latest fraudulent investment house, Stanford Financial Group of Houston, TX, and Antigua. Robert Allen Stanford was a top Democratic contributor, and is currently at large--wanted by the F.B.I. for defrauding investors by inflating outcomes--in what appears to be a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme.
According to the C.R.P., employees of Stanford "gave $2.4 million to federal candidates, parties and committees since 2000, with 65 percent of that going to Democrats. Stanford and his wife, Susan, have given $931,100 out of their own pockets, with 78 percent going to Democrats."
In committee, Sen. Dodd, on behalf of the American public, chastises the Federal Reserve Bank, the Treasury Department, heads of Auto Corporations about scandals, executive bonus compensation, private jets, junkets for bailout banks to Vegas. Everyday it seems another financial institution C.E.O., is being dragged before the Senate and House Finance and Banking committees to explain themselves, with Dodd acting indignant. It is political theater at its most twisted and grotesque.
In a search for a viable scapegoat for the inability of the government to right the ship despite unprecedented access to government purse-strings, I propose that every politician--including Sen. Dodd--give back the millions of dollars of campaign contributions received in the last election cycle from T.A.R.P. recipients and other corporate titans who drove their companies into bankruptcy through corruption or malfeasance.