Fact Check: Latest Sestak Ad Full of “Poop” 

Allentown – Congressman Joe Sestak must be feeling the heat for his enthusiastic support for every single bailout because he is up with a new ad trying to defend his votes for the bailout of Wall Street, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the auto companies.
 
Too bad his defense is full of “poop.”

There are a couple of key items Congressman Sestak doesn’t tell you about his bailout votes 

FACT #1: Right after Congressman Sestak voted to bail out Wall Street, he declared: “I really strongly felt this was the most consequential vote I have taken these two years.  And our nation, my constituents, who won’t be able to get affordable loans, whose savings are going to go down, small businesses are going to get loans, unemployment rises—this was a vote for them really.” (The Comcast Network, 09/30/08). 

FACT #2: Three months after Congressman Sestak voted to bail out Wall Street, he voted AGAIN to release the second round of bailout money to the Wall Street banks even though a majority of the House of Representatives, including 99 Democrats, voted against the second Wall Street bailout (RC #27, 01/22/09).  No wonder Congressman Sestak has received over $100,000 from the very Wall Street banks he voted to bail out! (FEC.gov) 

FACT #3: Right after Congressman Sestak voted to bail out Wall Street, he bought stock in Bank of America – one of the banks that would receive bailout money (Morning Call, 06/15/09).  Then he voted to bail out the banks again in January! (RC #27, 01/22/09).  

FACT #4: A year after Sestak voted for the Wall Street bailout, he opposed bipartisan efforts to end the TARP program and save taxpayers money (Press release, 09/26/09).  

FACT #5: Sestak likes to blame Pat for the financial crisis, but Sestak voted against more stringent regulations on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (RC #394, 03/22/07), the government sponsored enterprises that lay at the heart of the housing crisis, while Pat tried to impose stronger regulations on Fannie and Freddie when he was in Congress.  And then Sestak voted to force taxpayers to bail out Fannie and Freddie when they went bankrupt (RC #519, 7/23/08).  No surprise that Sestak has also received campaign contributions from Fannie Mae! (FEC.Gov) 

FACT #6: All these bailouts weren’t even enough for Congressman Sestak because he is proposing his own bailout bill in which taxpayers will have to bail out other people’s mortgages (The Home Ownership Vesting Plan of 2009, HR 1356).  The bill is so extreme is has exactly zero cosponsors in the House of Representatives.
 
“Sestak voted for every one of the taxpayer-funded bailouts, opposed bipartisan efforts to stop them, said the Wall Street bailout was the most important vote he’s taken and it was a vote for his constituents, and is now proposing his own mortgage bailout,” Toomey Communications Director Nachama Soloveichik said.  “And now, two weeks before the election, he says he ‘it made me sick to bail out the banks!’  This is a desperate last minute attempt to run away from his failed record on bailouts.”