TARP Vote: http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00213

“I believe that inaction will cause more damage to this country than we can sustain. As I’ve been saying all along, Congress must enact legislation that will stabilize the economy, get credit moving in the markets, provide greater oversight and not reward the reckless behavior of some corporate CEOs. I believe this bill puts us on the right track.” – Murkowski Press Release October 2, 2008

See full Press Release: http://murkowski.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=be377cb4-a898-7c07-a00e-5cd1c1ea19dc&ContentType_id=b94acc28-404a-4fc6-b143-a9e15bf92da4&Group_id=c01df158-d935-4d7a-895d-f694ddf41624&MonthDisplay=10&YearDisplay=2008

Vote against requiring the Federal Reserve Board to account for TARP funds:
http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00131

Text of above Amendment:
“On page 48, line 24, insert ``including the identity of each entity to which the Board has provided such assistance, the value or amount of that financial assistance, and what that entity is doing with such financial assistance,'' after ‘2008,’.”

Other Bailouts:

Vote to failed mortgage brokers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac:
http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00186

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout costs reach $160 Billion, could reach $1 Trillion Dollars:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=an_hcY9YaJas&pos=10

Vote to protect increased funding to the International Monetary Fund for International bailouts:
http://senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00201

Sponsor’s Statement: Mr. DeMINT: “Mr. President, I am going to speak on my amendment to S. 1054, and it addresses a large amount of money that has been added to the war supplemental bill. In these times, it is, first of all, somewhat surprising that we would take $108 billion and add it, unrelated to war supplemental, to this spending bill. My amendment would strike $108 billion from the current spending bill, and I would like to take a few minutes to explain exactly what my amendment does and what we are striking.

The Chair and all my colleagues know these are very challenging times. We often refer to it as one of the worst economic crises we have had. I think we and many Americans are concerned about how much we are spending, how much we are borrowing, and what that might mean in the not-too-distant future as it relates to inflation and interest rates and higher taxes. I am hearing very often when I go back home: Enough is enough.

We have to remember, as we look at this amount of money that has been requested, what happened to what we called the TARP funds. The last administration asked us to come up with $700 billion to be used for a financial bailout because we were in a crisis, and the money was going to be used--and this was very clear--to buy toxic assets, nonperforming loans, here and around the world. It had to be done immediately or the world financial system would collapse. Under that duress, Congress approved $700 billion--really, a trillion with interest, over time--but none of the money was ever used as it was supposed to be used. We never bought any toxic assets. In fact, the money was used in different ways: to inject money into banks--even some banks that didn't want it; it has been used to make loans to General Motors and to Chrysler; and now we are talking about converting those loans to common shares so that the Government is owner of General Motors and Chrysler, as well as the AIG insurance company and possibly part owners of many banks.

But the interesting part of this that relates to my amendment is that this week I asked Secretary Geithner: What is going to happen when this money is repaid? Well, if it is repaid, he said, it will go into the general fund, but the Treasury will maintain an authorization to take up to $700 billion from the general fund anytime from now on. It becomes a permanent slush fund for Treasury. So what we have done is made the Treasury Department appropriators. Anytime they want, they can appropriate up to $700 billion.

That is, in effect, what we are doing with the International Monetary Fund. Let me explain to my colleagues a lot of things I didn't know until I looked into this. The International Monetary Fund was set up to make loans to nations; to help nations that might need money to get through a financial crisis. Many nations are involved, but we give them $10 billion as a kind of deposit to the fund. Currently, the IMF has the authority to use that money continuously. But we also give them the right to draw another $55 billion from our Treasury at any time. In effect, the International Monetary Fund can appropriate $55 billion from the U.S. Treasury anytime it wants. They now have over $60 billion of our money that they can use all over the world.

We can debate whether that is a good thing, but what the President has asked for, and this bill provides, is an additional $100 billion credit line, in effect, to the International Monetary Fund, and it ups our deposit another $8 billion. We are going to take another $8 billion and put it in the International Monetary Fund to be used. But then we make appropriators out of the International Monetary Fund. We give them a permanent credit line of an additional $100 billion that they can appropriate anytime they want around the world.

There are a lot of good things we would like to do as a country, as a Congress. We would love to improve our education system. There are a lot of challenges in health care. We have talked about our roads and bridges decaying. There are so many good things we would like to do that we don't have the money for. How can we possibly tell an International Monetary Fund that they can take $100 billion anytime they want from the U.S. Treasury if there is an emergency somewhere in the world?

There will be emergencies in these times. The interesting issue we are not thinking about is we are going to have more and more crises here at home. We know California is heavily in debt--over $20 billion. They are talking about a financial collapse, as is New York and other States. But the size of California's debt is only one-fifth of what we are giving the International Monetary Fund.

I don't think we have added up all of this. I am very concerned we are not considering how much money we are talking about. Let's put $108 billion in context. I know some will come and say we are not spending that amount of money, we are just authorizing it, which means it can be appropriated anytime, but we are not spending it. In fact, they took the effort to get CBO to change the way it normally scores so this is not spending. They are saying the risk is only like $5 billion. But the International Monetary Fund can take $100 billion out of our Treasury anytime it wants.

With the world situation the way it is, I think we are being very naive to think it will not come out. We were told most of the TARP funds would not be used. We used most of the TARP funds.

But let's think about this $100 billion. That is more than we spend as a Federal government on transportation all year. The 2010 budget for transportation is $5 billion. It is more than we spend on education for a whole year--$94 billion in our country. It is more than we spend on veterans' benefits. It is a lot of money. But very often we are talking about our own services to our own people in this country for which we do not have enough money. We need to remember the International Monetary Fund, while it may serve in theory a good purpose, people on the board who decide how this money is used include countries that we say are terrorists, such as Iran. Do we think Iran is going to help the United States when we are in trouble?

Let's look at our current situation. Our current national debt as a country is $11.2 trillion--more than any other country in the world. We are the most indebted country in the whole world. Our per capita debt is $37,000. Every man, woman and child in this country owes $37,000, based on what we have already borrowed. But if you include Social Security and Medicare liabilities, our current expenditures will exceed tax revenues by $40 trillion over the next 75 years. Our debt is now 80 percent of our gross domestic product--80 percent of our total economy, which is the highest level since 1951.

The President's budget estimates that total debt relative to our total economy will rise 97 percent by 2010 and 100 percent thereafter. We are going to have debt that is larger than our total economy in the next year or two.

We currently owe $740 billion to the People's Republic of China and we owe $635 billion to Japan and $186 billion to the oil exporters. Keep in mind, if the IMF does access this $108 billion, we will have to borrow it in order for them to get it, and we will have to pay interest on that money. We will be told we will earn interest on any money that is borrowed, but we will likely pay even a higher interest rate in order to make that money available. When we do, we increase our debt even further.”