Jack Kemp on the Bailout

Amanda Carpenter | September 30, 2008 1:48 PM

On a conference call for the McCain campaign this afternoon supply-sider Jack Kemp said he'd been talking with some conservatives on the Hill who voted against the bailout on what could be done to get them on board in the days ahead.

Kemp, who specified he was not speaking for the McCain campaign on this matter, suggested a "carry-forward" provision be added to the legislation to help banks amortize their debt.

KEMP: When a bank declares a loss and sells the paper to Treasury and declares a loss, I’d like to see them have a carry-back provision, or carry it forward, to amortize the loss because they have to declare this loss in the very quarter in which the paper is sold to the Treasury. So if they could amortize their loss over three to five years or carry it forward against gains in the past over three years that would give them an amortization schedule that would not impact their balance sheets.