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POPSHousing Bill Threatens Personal Privacy Email Petition The Senate is currently considering a $300 billion mortgage bailout for the riskiest borrowers and their banks. Recently, it was revealed that Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), the primary architect of the compromise bill that ultimately ended up on the Senate floor, had received a special “VIP” loan from Countrywide Financial, which stands to be one of the primary beneficiaries of the bill. Unfortunately, the irresponsible economics and the VIP scandal are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the bad policy in the mortgage bailout. Hidden within the bill is a provision added by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) that would greatly expand the power of the Internal Revenue Service to monitor what Americans buy online. Sen. Grassley’s provision would require the nation’s electronic payment systems to track, aggregate, and report information on nearly every electronic transaction to the federal government.