OP/ED: Guinta's the Fox Guarding the Henhouse

By Dickie Stevens

Hampton Beach resident

How ludicrous would it be if John Edwards served on the board of an organization for faithful husbands? Or if Jenna Jameson appointed herself “spokeswoman for the virgin community?” How funny would it be for Pinocchio to be the spokesman for a lie detector manufacturer, or Mitt Romney to chair a “tax return transparency” committee? It makes just about as much sense as Congressman Frank Guinta to .

Rep. Guinta serving on the committee that oversees the nation’s banking rules is just further proof that Washington’s corruption has gone from somewhat covered up to completely naked. How can we trust Frank Guinta to handle the world’s biggest banks, when he’s currently under federal investigation for refusing to come clean about an account with hundreds of thousands of dollars which he used to cut checks totaling $355,000 to his own campaign in 2010?

$355,000? Sakes alive, Frank. You’ve got to admit that’s quite a haul. He says it was an oversight he forgot to report to the FEC. Yeah, right. Tell you what, Frank- I’ve got a bridge to sell. I’m ten feet tall. Guinta doesn’t belong anywhere near the House Financial Services Committee, just like someone with multiple personality disorder and anger issues doesn’t need to be anywhere near the control panel for a nuclear reactor.

I imagine Guinta will be among those legislators who fawned over Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, who lost $2 billion to $7 billion of his own depositors’ money playing risky Wall Street shell games. Guinta has also taken $11,000 in campaign donations from the American Bankers Association, according to opensecrets.org. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus, one of Guinta’s Republican colleagues, went on record saying, “Washington is here to serve the banks.” We need more members of Congress who will stand up to the bankers who wrecked our economy and kicked families out of their homes to buy newer Bentleys, not less.

On the House Financial Services Committee, Guinta would be subject to the oily pitches of banking lobbyists who throw piles of money at tax-writing committees in the House and Senate to rig existing regulations with loopholes that only benefit their clients, who pay them well to game the system and bribe the legislators responsible for overseeing it. Given Frank Guinta’s track record of voting to repeal Obamacare 33 times with no alternative, which benefits nobody except private health insurance companies, and his numerous votes for the Paul Ryan budget that raises taxes on the middle class to cut taxes for the rich, Guinta will likely bend over backwards to give the lobbyists anything they want on a silver platter with a smile.