Conservative GOPers Release Alternative Plan on Financial CrisisThe Republican Study Committee (RSC), a faction of small-government House conservatives led by Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, has released an alternative plan for dealing with the Wall Street crisis, in opposition to the $700 billion bailout being proposed by the Treasury Department.
The stripped-down plan advocates a two-year suspension of the capital gains tax and calls for pull privatization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were taken over by the federal government earlier this month.
The RSC’s opposition to the bailout — coupled with concern among progressive Democrats that the measure doesn’t do enough to help homeowners — could complicate efforts by House leaders to quickly pass legislation.
According to The Hill, the RSC argues that the bailout plan “fundamentally alters the nation’s free-market system in that it broadly socializes firms’ money-losing mortgage assets and places the U.S. on a slippery slope whereby profits will also be nationalized.”
