John Callahan flip-flops as his credibility gap widens on financial issues

By DENT FOR CONGRESS

This week, John Callahan once again tried to correct his own talking points on legislation to reform financial services, and now claims he would have voted against the TARP emergency legislation of 2008 after his campaign said he was for it. His new set of talking points only reinforces the fact Callahan has no credibility on the financial services issue.

Two weeks ago, Callahan’s campaign manager said Callahan would have voted for the TARP program in 2008. (http://www.pa2010.com/2010/05/in-the-15th-tying-dent-to-wall-street-is-the-strategy/) Then he tried to couch the talking points to suggest Callahan would have voted for the first bill but not the second bill – which would have meant he thought we had a financial crisis one week and not the next. Now he finally says he would have voted against it entirely. (http://www.pa2010.com/2010/06/callahan-says-he-would-have-opposed-the-bailouts/)

But if Callahan wouldn’t have voted for TARP, why hasn’t he reversed his support for Barney Frank’s legislation that would create a permanent TARP bailout fund and use recovered TARP funds for new spending instead of deficit reduction?

Charlie Dent voted to end the program because it was supposed to be a temporary response to a crisis, and has voted to require all repaid funds pay down the deficit.

“It’s increasingly obvious that John Callahan doesn’t know what he’s talking about, period,” said Shawn Millan, campaign manager, Charlie Dent for Congress. “His campaign says one thing, then comes up with a completely absurd effort to change its message, and now completely reverses itself. Some advice to John Callahan – if your Washington-based campaign manager knows so little about where you stand on important issues, consider replacing him.”

As House and Senate conferees meet to work on a final version of financial services legislation – due to major differences between House and Senate versions – Charlie Dent has said he will review the final legislation before making a determination on whether it is effective, and more importantly if it might worsen the already struggling economy. Meanwhile, John Callahan is still trying to figure out where he stands on legislation that was passed in 2008.

Callahan’s credibility gap doesn’t end there. Callahan also supports a proposed $100 billion bank tax that will make credit less available to individuals and small businesses, and that would be assessed on institutions that didn’t even take TARP funds. Ironically, after Callahan claimed to support the Senate bill before it was completed, the Senate dropped the tax from the legislation for many of the same reasons Charlie Dent opposes it. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/04/AR2010050404707_pf.html)

Just as with health care reform, here is yet another issue where John Callahan has no credibility.

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