ABC Video - Pelosi Discusses Occupy Wall Street - Oct. 10, 2011
I don't have a high opinion of (let's pass it so we can see what's in the bill) Pelosi, but she's correct in this clip. The only problem with her comment is the leading role that she herself played in Congress' ultimate approval of TARP, despite the fact that the American people were against the Wall Street bailout back in 2008 by a margin of 99 to 1, according to some members' public statements.
Below, we have details and quotes from the above clip, plus a look at Nancy's pivotal role, as House Speaker, in the passage of the single most unpopular bill in the history of Congress, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, also known as the Great Wall Street Rape of America.
For the majority of you who haven't been around since the beginning, the passage of this bill is what led your editor to launch The Daily Bail some 3 years ago.
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House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the Occupy Wall Street protests are a reaction government putting "Main Street at the mercy of Wall Street" by bailing out failing financial institutions.
In an interview for Sunday's "This Week" on ABC, Pelosi said that the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which was passed in 2008 when she was House Speaker and signed by President George W. Bush, was one of the causes for the demonstrations.
"I think one of the most angry responses I've seen to actions in Washington came after we passed the TARP bill. And that was the bill that pulled us back from a - a financial crisis that we - and this was during the presidency of President Bush," Pelosi said. "The thought was that when we did that, there would be capital available and Main Street would benefit from the resources that went largely to Wall Street. It didn't happen."
"I do think that, from what we saw after TARP, that the focus on Wall Street was one that they thought was a legitimate place to go. Don't do this again; don't put Main Street at the mercy of Wall Street," she said. "Not to paint everyone on Wall Street with the same brush. That would not be fair. But actions were taken that risked our economy and we don't want that to happen again."
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Now it's your turn for some scrutiny, Nancy.
Let's start with Paulson on his knees begging Pelosi to save TARP:
It was, according to accounts filtering out of the White House, an extraordinary scene. Hank Paulson, the US treasury secretary and a man with a personal fortune estimated at $700m (£380m), had got down on one knee before the most powerful woman in Congress, Nancy Pelosi, and begged her to save his plan to rescue Wall Street.
Please don't blow up this deal, Paulson pleaded. Pelosi tried to keep it light. "It's not me blowing this up. It's the Republicans," she told him. Paulson sighed. "I know," he said.
The exchange - and those in the room said Paulson was only half joking - took place moments after a White House meeting that was supposed to endorse a $700bn bailout ended in acrimony.
At the White House on Thursday afternoon were George Bush, and the two men who stand to inherit America's economic mess: Barack Obama and John McCain, along with other congressional leaders. In the 40 minutes the Democratic and Republican leaders sat around a long table, prospects for a rescue package slid from optimism to near despair.
"This sucker could go down," Bush is said to have told the group - referring to the teetering US economy.
How did it come to this? What happened to a deal that had been so close to fruition before the meeting at the White House? And what was McCain's role, saviour or saboteur? By yesterday afternoon, angry Democrats were accusing McCain of sabotaging the deal to further his own presidential campaign - and even some Republicans were inclined to agree. "Clearly, yesterday, his position on that discussion yesterday was one that stopped a deal from finalising," the Republican whip, Roy Blunt, told reporters.
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We're not absolving Paulson and Bush, not under any stretch of the imagination, as the existence of hundreds of stories on this site makes clear, but Pelosi's support, as House Speaker, was pivotal in TARP's passage.
Roll Tape...
Video - The Day Of The First Vote - Sep. 28, 2008
Pelosi announces there is a deal. She was wrong.
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Video - The Day After TARP Failed In The House - Sep. 29, 2008
Nancy announces that she will not give up on a Wall Street bailout.
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Video - Pelosi's Complete Floor Speech In Support of TARP - Sep. 28, 2009
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Several important background stories are in comments immediately below.