The 15 freshmen Republican representatives in the
House Tea Party Caucus each ran in 2010 on a populist
anti-Wall Street message, highlighting their opposition to
bank bailouts like the 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)
and criticizing Washington for enabling the banking sector as it
became "Too Big to Fail."
After winning, all fifteen received significant
PAC contributions from the banking industry — and have
become a reliable vote and mouthpiece for the financial industry,
a ThinkProgress analysis of campaign contributions, voting records
and public statements reveals.
Rather than campaigning on a typical pro-business platform,
the Tea Party freshmen tapped into public resentment of big banks
and bailouts.
For example, then-candidate Sandy Adams (R-FL) said
on her campaign website that she "opposes government bailouts"
and "would have voted against TARP and the auto bailout."
Jeff Landry (R-LA) said bailouts of private businesses had
"corrupted our free market system by rewarding the irresponsible
and penalizing the responsible," blasting "bank bailouts, which led
to taxpayer money directly or indirectly going into multi-million dollar
bonuses."
But in Congress, the Tea Party has towed the line for big banks.
Eleven of the 15 have become co-sponsors of H.R. 3461,
a top priority for the American Bankers Association. According
to Americans for Financial Reform, the legislation would "tilt
the playing field further in the direction of excessive deference
to industry interests and tie the hands of regulators attempting
to protect the public interest."
The bill would make it harder for bank examiners to do
their job, giving regulatory responsibilities to an industry
that’s already shown it can't police itself.
SEE what happened (click to enlarge):
http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Tea-Party-donations.png
Multiple links and more here:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/05/21/484283/how-banks-bought-the-tea-party/