One of Rep. Paul Broun’s (R-GA) most frequent targets is the federal government, which he has in the past claimed is going to kill people by passing comprehensive health care reform and clean energy legislation. Now, the Atlanta Journal Constitution has discovered that Broun “was a part-owner of a bank” started by his brother that failed in March and had to be taken over by the FDIC to protect its depositors, meaning that the very same federal government the congressman demonizes was forced to save his failing business and its customers. Asked for comment by the paper, Broun attacked the federal government, saying that it’s “totally wrong” for the government to be taking over failed banks like his and protecting the depositors:
But after an Atlanta Journal-Constitution examination of congressional financial disclosure forms revealed that Broun was an investor in the [failed] bank, the Republican congressman from Athens had a very strong opinion about who’s to blame: the federal government. “The federal government is closing these banks down when there is absolutely no reason to do so,” he said. “It’s just totally wrong.”
State and federal regulators on March 26 shut down four-branch McIntosh Commercial and sold its assets to West Point, Ga.-based CharterBank after determining McIntosh was insolvent and unable to pay its debts. The bank, founded in 2002, lost $28 million over the past two years and had $88 million in troubled loans on its books. The failure was expected to cost the federal Deposit Insurance Fund more than $123 million. […]
“Sheila Bair [the FDIC’s chairman] and the FDIC that’s forcing all of this, under the direction of this [Obama] administration, needs to back off and let community banks do what they should be doing,” [Broun] said.
Of course, if the federal government were to “back off” from its New Deal-era FDIC program and allow a failed bank like the one Broun co-owned to close down, its depositors would lose millions of dollars in their savings through no fault of their own. “Our job is to protect depositors,” FDIC spokesman LaJuan Williams-Young told the press. “We don’t want depositors to lose any money. And when it comes to an institution that a regulator has deemed insolvent, as soon as that is closed, the safer depositors are.”
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today during our fundraiser. We have 6 days to add 379 new monthly donors. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.