Boomberg News is reporting that a beleaguered President Bush is backing down on spending the rest of the bailout package. The Bush administration is under fire for spending half of the bailout in ways that were not intended by Congress. Bloomberg:
The Bush administration told congressional aides it won’t ask lawmakers to release $350 billion remaining as part of the $700 billion U.S. financial- rescue package, people familiar with the matter said.
The administration of President George W. Bush ends in less than 10 weeks, and a delay in submitting a request to lawmakers would leave it to President-elect Barack Obama to tap remaining funds in the bailout fund. “I think it is the right thing to do,” Senator Richard Shelby, top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, said today in a Bloomberg Television interview. “I think we need to debate this. I think the American people need to know where the first $350 billion went, who benefited from it.”
The Treasury Department has committed $290 billion, or about 83 percent of the total allocated so far in a program Congress enacted last month to inject capital into a wide spectrum of banks and American International Group Inc. The U.S. invested $125 billion in nine major banks, including Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. and plans to buy an additional $125 billion in preferred shares of smaller lenders.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has been criticized by lawmakers for shifting the focus of the program to inject capital directly into financial institutions. His initial proposal presented to Congress called for buying troubled assets from the firms.
Previous Comments
The Bush administration: crooks to the bitter end.
#140775 | Author: DonnaLadd | Date: Nov 18 2008
They’re trying to set up Obama to take some of the blame should things go haywire or backfire on them. How can thing not go haywire or wrong when there is no accountability or punishment for incompetence, greed or irresponsibility as was/is the case in Irag and now here? The USA Today is running a column today on American corporations/contractors in Iraq getting away with grand theft by the Bush regime although poorly performing the contracts or not performing or completing them. These people need to return the money or go to jail. Again I say, the biggest thugs in America is not poor people living in the inner cities, but business men and corporate giants robbing the government and people in the name of free-market and unfettered capitlaism that never trickles down to the average citizen to any discernible or measurable degree. Of course, you couldn’t get one of those contracts unless you had the hookup with the Bush administration, usually as a former governmental employee of some type or well connected republican who gives big money to the party.
#140785 | Author: Walt | Date: Nov 18 2008
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The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.
