On the recordMay 3, 2010
The Boxer amendment, as I understand it, is a declarative statement that taxpayers will not be responsible for any Wall Street bailouts. My understanding is that it is not a provision that would enforce itself or would in any way be enforceable in the legislation, but it certainly expresses a sentiment I assume every Senator would share. The problem, however, is not just the fact that we are concerned that taxpayers will be responsible for bailouts but the fact that bailouts will exist in any event and how that might affect people who have invested in or lent to an institution, what authority it would give the U.S. Government, and whether such a provision would apply as well to perhaps the biggest miscreants here: Fannie and Freddie, the two government-sponsored enterprises that hold the vast majority of the mortgages that are unsound or on less than strong financial footing--I will put it that way. So the question is not so much whether taxpayers' dollars will be used--though this amendment, while expressing a good sentiment, doesn't operatively prevent that--but just as much whether Wall Street will still be bailed out but in a different way.
