Crooked is as crooked does

Byron York catches Barney Frank being...well, Barney Frank.

You may recall that TARP was sold partially on the basis that the taxpayers could end up showing a profit on bank bailouts, with the money returned in the form of paying down the public debt. Which would benefit taxpayers of this and future generations.

Enter the despicable Frank, who wants to intercept the people's money to...see if you can guess...funnel it into a slush fund to use to pay off Democrat donors and special interest groups:

Rep. Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has come up with a proposal to spend any TARP profits before they can be returned to the taxpayers. Last Friday, Frank introduced the "TARP for Main Street Act of 2009," a bill that would take profits from the program and immediately redirect them toward housing proposals favored by Frank and some fellow Democrats. ...

The original TARP legislation required that money made from the program "shall be paid into the general fund of the Treasury for reduction of the public debt."

But now Frank wants to spend the money before it can be used to pay down anything. First, the "TARP for Main Street" proposal would take $1 billion "from dividends paid by financial institutions that have received financial assistance provided under...the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act" and apply it to a trust fund that Frank has long wanted to create for low-income rental housing. (The measure, unfunded, was part of last year's bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.) Next, Frank would take $1.5 billion from TARP dividends for a so-called "neighborhood stabilization" fund. Republican critics have charged that both measures might allow federal dollars to be distributed to activist groups like the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now, or ACORN.

The "TARP for Main Street" bill would also spend $2 billion, apparently from remaining TARP funds, to subsidize people who are delinquent on their mortgages, and another $2 billion to "stabilize multifamily properties that are in default or foreclosure."

Frank is nothing more than a common criminal, a Bernie Madoff for the gay political class. What a miserable piece of shit.

The voters wanted Democrat rule, and as Mencken said they're getting it good and hard: the emboldening and strengthening of America's enemies, a massive transfer of wealth and power from the people to the federal government, feverish attempts to permanently ration energy and health care, and making pay to play the defining principle of governance. Hope you're enjoying it!