29th District candidate for Congress
Friends,

I'm writing you today to make sure you know exactly where I stand on the proposed Bush bailout. While this is clearly the greatest financial challenge our Nation has faced since the Great Depression, we must learn from the past and not simply agree to whatever President Bush puts in front of us without discussion and debate.

I believe any package must include the following:

The creation of an independent non -partisan oversight commission to direct the spending, Secretary Paulson cannot be allowed to run this effort.
No taxpayer funded multimillion dollar golden parachutes for the CEOs that caused this crisis with their irresponsible actions.
The creation of common sense federal safeguards to monitor these companies to ensure that this never happens again.
If a company receives funds from a federal bailout, they should return a portion of their future profits to the American taxpayer.
Requiring mortgage lenders to have a financial stake in all loans they make to discourage the bad lending practices that lead to this crisis.
You can read my whole plan online by clicking here.

http://massaforcongress.com/eric_massa_finance_plan.pdf

This crisis has given many reporters a moment to reflect on the decisions of the past. Time Magazine took a look at a plan that my opponent tried, unsuccessfully, to pass in 2006. He personally led the charge to expand the amount of money pensions could funnel into risky hedge funds. Had he been successful, our seniors would have lost a considerable amount of their retirement funds in the last few days. Remember, this is the same congressman that co-sponsored George Bush's plan to privatize Social Security which would have resulted in a 24% cut in benefits for our seniors right now.

To read the entire Time Magazine article, click here.

http://www.time-blog.com/swampland/2...ore_vulne.html

Thank you and as always, please feel free to contact me at any time. I can only hope that Randy Kuhl will find the courage to break from his allegiance to George Bush and only vote for a plan that protects the people of this district, not the CEO's of these failed corporations on Wall Street.

Sincerely,



Eric Massa
Commander US Navy (ret.)
Congressional Candidate, NY-29