Oversight committees AWOL

Published on Sunday, October 5, 2008 8:55 AM MST

Editor:

I was astonished to hear Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, blame the Bush administration for the current economic crisis. She made these statements during the discussion in Congress about the bailout of our financial institutions, which was to be a bipartisan effort.

Ms. Pelosi should ask Christopher Dodd (Democrat), chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, and Barney Frank (Democrat), chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, why they did not foresee the potential problems in the housing mortgage market and banking industry.

The Senate Committee provides oversight of “banks, banking and financial institutions; deposit insurance; economic stabilization; federal monetary policy, including the Federal Reserve System; and money and credit.” The House Committee provides oversight of the “securities, insurance, banking and housing industries. The committee also oversees the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.”

I can only assume the two committees were AWOL and did not do their jobs overseeing the regulation of the U.S. financial institutions.

Donald A. Moskowitz

(political independent)

Londonderry, N.H.

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Comments

3 comment(s)

Jason wrote on Oct 7, 2008 9:17 AM:

" Here is an idea. According to a recent poll35% of democrats believe Bush planted bombs in the trade center and planned 9-11 with the terrorists lets try this one for size now. In their desperate attempt to get the first black and democrat president the dems in congress allowed the markets to fail under their watch so they could pin it on Bush and let McCain fail. And since Obama has such a great communist style economic plan he can win and save us all. Just a thought. "

Alll new wrote on Oct 6, 2008 7:43 AM:

" Vote out everyone that is in Congress now and get all new people in. If I don't do my job I get fired. Time for Congress to get fired. They didn't do their job. "

Concerned wrote on Oct 5, 2008 12:38 PM:

" I think Mr. Moskowitz brings up a good point. However the roots go back further to even before the current democratic congress. Nobody wanted to apply the brakes to the excesses of Wall Street and the banking industry, Now we the taxpayers are stuck with a 700 billion dollar bailout that nobody is 100% sure will work. There are Bipartisan representatives that have terrible misgivings about this bailout and rightfully so. We are teetering on edge of socialism. You want to point the blame at someone? Stand in front of the mirror. "

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