Kashkari Accused Of Bailout “Bait and Switch” During Angry Hearing

Former Goldman Sachs executive grilled by Kucinich and Issa


Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Friday, November 14, 2008

Neel Kashkari, the fox appointed to guard the henhouse and front the multi-trillion dollar bailout, faced angry questions from Dennis Kucinich and Rep. Darrell Issa during a hearing today, as Issa accused him of playing a “bait and switch” game with taxpayers’ money.

All the major networks carried footage of the U.S. House subcommittee hearing this morning and aired Kashkari’s opening statement in full. But as soon as Kucinich and Issa were about to weigh in, the networks almost simultaneously cut the feed and moved on to a different story. Another example of how the corporate media is owned by the same elite that runs the Federal Reserve.

Kucinich accused Paulson and Bush of circumventing Congress by completely changing the destination of where the bailout money would go and refusing to disclose what had happened to $2 trillion dollars of taxpayer money, adding, “I think it’s fairly obvious that Congress would have never passed the [rescue plan] had it known how Treasury would marshal the resources it was given.”

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Kucinich’s battle with Kashkari went as follows, according to a Washington Post blog report.

“I assure you the secretary is passionate about this,” Kashkari said.

“Passionate about what?” Kucinich said.

“About helping homeowners,” Kashkari replied.

“Where?” Kucinich asked, sarcastically. “What country?”

“We are using all the tools available to ease the credit crises,” Kashkari said. “Let me give you an example…”

Kucinich interrupted Kashkari and continued his harangue.

“Maybe this is a game to some people in the administration. They’re on their way out of office and they can do whatever they want,” said Kucinich who tried to launch impeachment proceedings against Bush. “Meanwhile, people are hoping against hope” for help with their mortgages.

Kashkari tried to explain why the $700 billion was not used to buy troubled mortgages, but Kucinich would hear none of it.

Shortly after, Rep. Darrell Issa told Kashkari, “You’re here today because Congress is convinced you played a bait-and-switch and you’re not doing anything to convince us otherwise,” accusing the former Goldman Sachs executive of playing “ring around the rosie” with their questions.

Others slammed Kashkari for the administration’s agenda of helping banks while abandoning consumers.

“This administration wants to privatize Wall Street’s gains and socialize Wall Street’s losses,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.

“Secretary Paulson’s policy reversal breaks with Congressional intent, contradicts public assurances previously made by Treasury, and leaves the federal government without an adequate mechanism to stem a tide of home foreclosures,” said Kucinich.

“Thus, the only significant use by Treasury of the funds Congress authorized to address the mortgage crisis underlying the financial crisis includes, among other things, propping up a Beverly Hills banker to the stars; subsidizing the evisceration of National City Bank and the laying-off of thousands of Clevelanders who worked there; and indirectly funding the payment of bonuses, compensation, and dividends by financial firms that could not have afforded to make them without the TARP capital infusion,” Kucinich continued.

Watch clips from the hearing below.