Posted by
Sue on Sunday, July 05, 2009 2:30:23 AM
If any of you missed it back in June, Obama announced to all that could hear that some financial institutions would be "allowed" to repay Troubled Asset Relief Program dollars, otherwise known as TARP. He shouted from the rooftops that the "massively expensive TARP bailout had made money for the federal government." Yipeee! Food stamps for all or free checking.....Of course he also added that TARP supporters have LONG held out the "hope" that the program might be profitable. Eureka, your dreams and hopes are answered.
But before you can say TARP, Representative Barney Frank, who by the way is the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has come up with a proposal to spend any TARP profits before they can be returned to the taxpayers. Shocking I say...not really. But wait, the excitement builds...last Friday, Barney introduced the "TARP for Main Street Act of 2009." Super! This is a bill that would take profits from the program and immediately, yes immediately, redirect them toward housing proposals favored by Frank and oh yes some fellow Democrat.
So what is this bill....Frank wants to spend the money before it can be used to pay down anything. First, the "TARP for Main Street" proposal would take $1 billion, yes billion, from dividends paid by financial institutions that have received financial assistance provided under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, which was porkapalooza I do believe, and apply it to a trust fund that Frank has long wanted to create for....wait for it...low-income rental housing. Yipeee! Then Barney woudl take $1.5 billion from TARP dividends for a so-called "neighborhood stabilization" fund.
This also rocking bill would also spend $2 billion, apparently from remaining TARP funds, to subsidize people who are delinquent on their mortgages, and another $2 billion to "stabilize multifamily properties that are in default or foreclosure." Say what?
Barney, our buddy, feels that spending the dividend payments now would reduce the chance that TARP might ever be a break-even deal for the taxpayer. So spend away before anything has come in.