On July 27, Representatives Tom MacArthur, as well as Keith Rothfus, and Claudia Tenney, all members of End Citizens United’s Big Money 20, signed onto a letter along with 26 other Republicans, addressed to the Federal Reserve demanding to weaken a rule that requires big banks to keep a larger safety net in place. Changing the Global Systemically Important Bank Surcharge (G-SIB) rule could put taxpayers on the hook to bail out the banks again. After the 2008 crash, taxpayers spent $245 billion to bail out Wall Street.
The letter was a culmination of intense lobbying by a group called the Financial Services Forum, an organization representing some of the country’s biggest banks. These members have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from the banking industry, including from PACs of banks that are affiliated with the Financial Service Forum .
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Rep. Tom MacArthur (NJ-03) has taken over $60,000 from the commercial banking industry.
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Rep. Keith Rothfus (PA-17) has taken over $360,000 from the commercial banking industry.
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Rep. Claudia Tenney (NY-22) has taken almost $100,000 from the commercial banking industry.
“America suffered through the worst recession since the Great Depression thanks to greed of the Big Banks and the politicians in their pockets,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “The banks got their taxpayer-funded bailout after the financial crisis, but there was no such help for the American people. Now, the banks want to weaken the safety net to protect against another meltdown – and these politicians are helping to pave the way – regardless of the risk to their own constituents.”
The Big Money 20 represent the worst of Washington’s rigged system: politicians who do the bidding of their big donors at the expense of the American people. ECU has made the members of the Big Money 20 their top targets to defeat in 2018. The grassroots group will educate voters on these politicians’ record of rigging the system to favor their own interests and their donors.
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