Tester Co-Sponsors 'Pay it Back Act' to Lower National Debt

Senator Jon Tester is urging congress to use money from the Wall Street bailout, to pay down the national debt.

Senator Tester is the only senate democrat to vote against the Wall Street bank bailout and the auto industry bailout. Now, he wants unused money and repaid money from the bank bailout to go towards reducing our skyrocketing national debt.

Tester is a co-sponsor of the bipartisan 'Pay it Back Act', a measure that would apply bailout funds to deficit reduction. It would also reduce the national debt limit, dollar-for-dollar as the money is returned as well as require returned investments from the sale of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stock to be used for debt reduction.

The bailout, also known as the troubled Asset Relief Program, was a 2008 program of the government to purchase assets and equity from financial institutions in an attempt to strengthen the financial sector.

The Senator says Main Street should not have to pay for greed on Wall Street.

Tester cosponsored and voted for a measure last month that would have immediately stopped the federal government from spending any more Wall Street bailout money. The measure would have required all repaid and unused bailout funds to be used to lower the national debt.