Letter: Does Sen. Mike Lee support bailouts after all?

Published: Friday, June 8 2012 12:00 a.m. MDT

JPMorgan Chase and Co. Manhattan headquarters in New York City is shown in Dec. 2011.

Bebeto Matthews, File, Associated Press

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Is it just me, or does anyone else see the irony in Sen. Mike Lee's short sale bail out? In 2008, JPMorgan gets a $25 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, bailout because of, among other things, the decision to invest in risky mortgages. In 2010, candidate Lee attacks Sen. Bob Bennett mercilessly because he compromised his Republican principles and voted for the bank portion of TARP. Now in 2012 Lee finds financial and moral compromise quite to his liking by accepting a bailout from none other than TARP bank JPMorgan.

Why does Lee insist that the taxpayer bailout of JPMorgan was bad yet take his own personal bailout from JPMorgan? How many more Lee bailouts does JPMorgan have to give before the taxpayers need to bail it out again? Or, dare we say it's because of the TARP bailout that JPMorgan is now in the position to bail Lee out? Is Lee just too big to fail? He needs to send a letter of thanks to Bennett for his TARP vote. Better yet, a note of apology. Truly, you can't make this stuff up.

Steve Earley


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