From the office of House Leader John Boehner:
The White House rolled out a little-noticed list of “Top 10 Most Wanted Lobbyist Loopholes” yesterday, but White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer conveniently left out a number of loopholes the White House has strongly supported - some backed by key campaign contributors like mega-billionaire Obama supporter George Soros, who reaped untold fortunes by betting against the U.S. economy and then bragged about it to a foreign newspaper (”I’m having a very good crisis,” Soros was quoted as telling the U.K. Daily Mail in 2009, in reference to the profits he made from the financial meltdown).
In truth, much like the backroom deal-laden health care law President Obama and the Democratic Congress forced upon a nation that didn’t want it, President Obama’s Wall Street bailout bill contains a host of special-interest carve-outs and loopholes designed to favor Democrats’ most powerful campaign contributors, bureaucrats, and political allies. Here are some noteworthy examples:
• 1. The Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac Loophole. The White House-backed bill fails to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government mortgage companies that sparked the financial meltdown after evading even the most modest reforms thanks to their friends in the Democratic Party. For years, Republicans consistently raised red flags about Fannie and Freddie’s financial condition and proposed responsible reforms only to be thwarted by Democrats with deep political ties to the worst offenders.
• 2. The Soros Loophole for Hedge Funds. The White House-backed bill conveniently exempts hedge funds from the Volcker Rule that establishes investment restrictions on depository institutions, the tax imposed on banks and the massive new regulatory structure being imposed on other financial firms. It should come as no surprise that - as The Hill reports - “hedge funds donate big to Democrats.” Chief among those contributors is big Obama supporter George Soros, one of the top 25 richest hedge fund managers.