Journalist and author Matt Taibbi said Friday that the $2.2 trillion coronavirus rescue package will signed into law by President Trump last month will end up being a corporate bailout that’s more harmful than the one issued during the Great Recession.
“I think there are specific and longer-term problems with this bailout package. The specific issue is that there’s basically no oversight,” Taibbi told Hill.TV. “The larger problem is on the financial side, where we’ve just sort of accepted the idea that maintaining prices in the financial market is an end to itself. So we’re throwing trillions of dollars with literally no oversight.”
As part of the economic relief package, congressional leaders agreed to establish a five-person oversight commission to oversee the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve’s handling of $500 billion in aid to hard-hit industries. Each of the four congressional leaders will appoint one member, with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in charge of jointly appointing the final member.
Tabbi said that lawmakers, like in 2008, don’t have a strong enough grasp on the policies that they are effectively propping up with the stimulus package.
In 2008, Congress approved $700 billion for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, an emergency measure designed to keep banks capitalized during the Great Recession.
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