Politics

A Victory for the People!

By Mary Bottari

Today a right-left coalition scored a victory for the American people when Senators voted 96-0 to audit the Federal Reserve.

The Center for Media and Democracy?s Wall Street Bailout Tally shows that since 2008, the U.S. government has flooded Wall Street banks and financial institutions with $4.7 trillion dollars in taxpayer money, mostly in the form of loans from the Fed reserve. The Fed has never told us which firms got these loans and what type of collateral American taxpayers got in return. This will now be revealed. We will also get an accounting of the Fed?s ?stealth? bailout of Fannie Mae andFreddie Mac.

It is important to note that in November 2008, Bloomberg News submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for the most basic of bailout information, but the Fed stalled forcing Bloomberg into court. Two sets of judges have ordered the Fed to turn over the information, but the Fed keeps stonewalling, appealing the case again last week. The Senate bill now forces the Fed to turn over this critical information. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont pulled together a right-left coalition that got the job done.

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Full post as published by PR Watch on May 11, 2010 (boomark / email).