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Statement of Senator Barack Obama on the Treasury Departments' Plan

October 14, 2008

Chicago, IL - Below is a Statement From Senator Barack Obama on the Treasury Department's Plan

"The Treasury Department's concept of investing money directly into struggling banks so they can lend money to families and businesses is the right one. But we must make sure this plan is implemented in a way that helps homeowners and does not enrich Wall Street CEOs at the taxpayers' expense, something I have warned against from the first day of this financial crisis. Taxpayers who are now invested in Goldman Sachs should not be treated worse than when Warren Buffett invested in Goldman Sachs. Injecting capital into our financial institutions is essential to stabilizing our economy, but we must make sure we are not giving sweetheart, insider deals that shift the risk to taxpayers without giving them sufficient upside. And we must make sure that these institutions are helping homeowners stay in their homes, which includes abiding by a 90 day moratorium on foreclosures for families who are making a good faith effort to pay their mortgages. Finally, the plan appears to extend a broader set of guarantees to banks without requiring any additional regulation, which represents more of the same failed philosophy that got us into this mess.

"I will be studying the details of this deal to make sure we can advance the core concept while still protecting taxpayers and ensuring that CEOs are not being enriched on our dime," said Senator Barack Obama.

Barack Obama, Statement of Senator Barack Obama on the Treasury Departments' Plan Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/291367

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