For Immediate Release:
San Jose -- July 16, 2010 --  Edward Gonzalez Condemns FINREG Act : "I decry the passage of H.R. 4173, the FINREG Act as a frontal assault on our free market," says Edward Gonzalez, candidate for Congress in the 16th Congressional District of California.
 
Proponents of the bill say it will curb financial institutions from behaviors that were somehow responsible for our near financial meltdown.
 
But according to Edward, FINREG is a pure power grab with no hope of preventing future financial disaster because it doesn't address the actions, taken with the awareness and encouragement of Congress, by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Reserve.
 
"The current reform bill would not have stopped the last crisis and does nothing to prevent another." 
 
"At the center of the housing bubble and the subsequent economic near meltdown was the Federal Reserve, with its policy of easy credit, followed by tightening credit, which systematically caused the default of so many adjustable mortgages.  Any financial reform that does not include a full audit of the Federal Reserve is useless."
 
The bill extends executive branch power, via newly established commissions and the Federal Reserve Board, to order the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to seize and liquidate any institution deemed unstable and a "systemic risk" to the economy.
 
Like ObamaCare, FINREG introduces page after page of ambiguous provisions for new commissions and calls for new regulations that have not yet been constructed or written.
 
FINREG will have the chilling effect of adding uncertainty to financial institution planning, making it less likely that financial institutions will risk extending their portfolios of loans and further dampening our already failing economy.
 
The bill, H.R. 4173, sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank with no cosponsors, passed the House of Representatives in its final form by a 237 to 192 vote on June 30, 2010. It passed the Senate by a 60 to 39 vote on July 15, 2010.
 
Zoe Lofgren, voted in favor of FINREG, one more step, after ObamaCare, toward the destruction of our economy.
 
"I further take great issue with Zoe Lofgren.  Though she co-sponsored a bill to audit the Federal Reserve, she later voted against it in the final draft.  Zoe Lofgren's spineless act of political maneuvering will have only negative effects for the people of Silicon Valley when the next economic crisis hits." - Edward Gonzalez