• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Business / Two Iowans testify about “bank tax”

Two Iowans testify about “bank tax”

May 4, 2010 By Matt Kelley

Two Iowans testified before Congress this morning. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley asked the men to appear as part of a hearing on what Grassley calls a “bank tax.”

Grassley says the president proposes a fee on major financial institutions that would pay back “every dime” of the federal bailout of the financial industry.  It’s sometimes called TARP — the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Grassley, a Republican, says he wants to ensure that money is returned to the taxpayers.

“I plan to ask the treasury secretary for a commitment from the administration that the president will veto any bill that contains a bank tax that isn’t dedicated to solely paying down the deficit,” Grassley says. “Otherwise, if taxes are simply raised for more spending, we haven’t accomplished anything but more taxing and spending. ‘Course, that’s business as usual here in Washington.”

John Sorenson of Des Moines, president of the Iowa Bankers Association, and Pat Baird, president and CEO of Aegon USA in Cedar Rapids, the nation’s fifth-largest insurance company were the two Iowans Grassley invited to be witnesses at today’s hearing.

“Both of these Iowans can offer Main Street perspective on how the bank tax or TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) tax could impact the community banks and life insurers who had nothing to do with the financial crisis that led to the TARP bailout,” Grassley says.

Grassley cites a Congressional Budget Office report. “The CBO said, and I quote from their report to me, the cost of the proposed fee would ultimately be borne to varying degrees by an institution’s customers,” Grassley says. “The customers would probably absorb some of the cost in the form of higher borrowing rates and other charges.”

Grassley also wants the treasury secretary to address concerns that General Motors paid back its initial TARP loan with money it got from a second TARP loan.  Grassley says GM and Chrysler should be included under the bank tax as the auto industry bailouts accounts for $34 billion of the projected $109 billion in TARP losses.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Business, Politics / Govt Tagged With: Chuck Grassley, Democratic Party, Insurance, Republican Party, Taxes

Featured Stories

Final employee who was there at the launch of the Iowa Lottery to retire

No more USPS mail in Iowa prisons; inmates to get copies of mail

State officials warn of influx of fake prescription drugs laced with fentanyl

‘Brain-eating amoeba’ discovered in Taylor County lake

Cedar Rapids therapist’s relationship with student leads to years in prison

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

Hutchinson calls Iowa State a perfect fit

Northern Iowa’s Farley touts new practice facility

First minor league game gets things started tonight at Field of Dreams site

Knoxville set to host sprint car racing’s biggest event

Iowa State basketball builds on its identity

More Sports

eNews and Updates

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives

Copyright © 2022 · Learfield News & Ag, LLC