7th District Congressman Sean Duffy held a very short notice town hall in New Richmond, Wisconsin on February 27. I did not attend this event but I did see it streamed. Congressman Duffy continues to live in an alternative reality and continues to show that he has no clue how the federal government works.
Planned Parenthood
The third or fourth statement in was on defunding Planned Parenthood. Duffy issued a press release stating that “new evidence reveals that abortion providers like Planned Parenthood do little other than provide abortions. " Okay, Congressman lets give this statement a thorough examination.
Planned Parenthood provides a number of services besides abortion. Services like contraception, hormone therapy, cancer screenings, STD treatment and assistance to quit smoking. According to an independent audit from 10/13 to 09/14 Patients who receive abortions only account for 13% of services performed at Planned Parenthood. So for a business that is " profiting off abortions 13% is not a very good profit margin.
Congressman Duffy is using this to sponsor a bill to prohibit Medicaid from covering centers that provide abortions. This is more to score political points then to benefit women's health. The fact is that federal funds already are unable to go towards abortions except for rape, incest, and life of the mother.
Dodd-Frank
A couple questions down the road revolved around the Dodd-Frank Act. It was clear to me that Congressman Duffy pretends to know what caused the financial collapse in 2008. The fact of the matter is that he was only partially correct but he left out the most important stuff.
Congressman Duffy, When someone wants to buy a house they will often borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars from a bank. In return, the bank gets a piece of paper called a mortgage. The borrower has to pay a portion of the total amount borrowed plus interest. If the borrower stops paying that is called a default which could eventually lead to foreclosure.
In the 2000's banks like Citigroup, Lehman Brothers and Bank of America bought pools of mortgages called mortgage back securities and sold them to a group of investors. Credit Agencies gave these mortgage back securities AAA ratings.
Lenders need more mortgages for this to work. So they loosened their standards to qualify for a mortgage. Traders sold collateral debt obligations and all of these were made up of risky loans. Not only that banks started using predatory lending practices. Giving borrowers payments they can afford at first but then it balloons into something that is completely unaffordable. So borrowers had mortgages double of the value of the house.
The most crucial party you left out was Credit Default Swaps, were unregulated insurance policies in case someone defaults on their house. AIG sold a bunch of these swaps without money to back them up. So here is what happened.
The Government had to bail most of these banks out. Some of them merged with bigger banks and some just went belly up. So the Troubled Asset Relief Program which most Americans know this as the bank bailout was passed. Citigroup is one of the biggest recipients of TARP funds. It received $25 billion under the original payout late last year and received another $20 billion after its stock started to sink in November. It also got the government to backstop some $306 billion in troubled assets on its books.Americans know this as the bailout. It spent $250 Billion bailing out the banks. (1)
Citigroup got into trouble when it was reported that they spent $50 Million on a private jet for executives. Merril Lynch's CEO spent $1 Million to decorate his office including $1,400 on a trash can and billions in golden parachutes. He also spent $122,000 on a rug and a toilet seat. Bank America bought out Merril Lynch and asked the government for $20 billion in more bailout money
Dodd-Frank set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to create transparency and reduce predatory lending. Congressman Duffy is a big opponent of the CFPB and Dodd-Frank. This might give you a reason why.
Between the years 2015-16 Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America have donated around $45,000 to keep Sean Duffy in Congress. Citigroup alone made $10,000 in contributions. so as long as the checks keep coming in. I could see where his memory might be a little fuzzy.
Border Adjustment Tax
At the end of the town hall. Duffy signaled support of a " Border Adjustment tax. Here's how that would work. This Tax would lower the corporate tax down to 20%. It would exempt businesses from paying taxes on profits they earn overseas. Additionally, domestically produced products that are exported would be exempt from tax. But imported products or services would be taxed when they’re bought or consumed in the U.S. (2) Senator Lindsay Graham that Paul Ryan has a tax plan that would not get 10 votes in the senate.
Consumers would pay more for imported goods and services, ranging from clothing manufactured in Bangladesh to gasoline bought at the pump. (2). This would hurt poor and middle-income Americans more than the more wealthiest among us. Border Adjustment Taxes is a complicated process that would not work.
I would predict that if this plan were to be implemented. Other Countries would raise their tax on imports and it could start a trade war. It would cause global and economic panic and it would be a mess.
Conclusion
Congressman Duffy has been representing the district since 2011. It is very clear that Duffy has no idea as to what he is talking about. It is a time that Northern Wisconsin has real representatives in congress.
(1)
duffy.house.gov/...
www.politifact.com/…
www.opensecrets.org/...
(2)
www.nydailynews.com/…
www.cbsnews.com/...