This is what happens when you rush.

by Aaron Wed Feb 11, 2009 1:33 pm

See, what it is, back in September and October Congress and the President was telling Americans how crucial it was to pass TARP and time was of the element and that if Washington didn't act boldly and swiftly, then we might never recover.

Now Congress and the President are telling us the exact same thing from one side of their face while crying about how banks have spent the TARP out of the other. Problem is, the banks were told by Congress that the money was theirs and Washington wouldn't tell them how to spend it.

Now they want to tell them how to spend it even though most that received the TARP money didn't want it to begin with but were told they had to go along by Herr Paulson.

The bankers are not sympathetic figures in Congress, particularly in the more populist House. The initial spending of the bailout funds was secretive, lacking strict requirements that the banks account publicly for how they were using the money.

Banks weren't helped by reports that Wall Street firms doled out more than $18 billion in bonuses to their employees last year or that Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo had planned conferences in Las Vegas. Goldman Sachs moved its three-day event to San Francisco; Wells Fargo canceled its employee recognition retreat.

Most of these bankers didn't beg for their money. They were selected because they were relative healthy banks that could spur more banking activity and eliminate the stigma of taking taxpayer money for other financial institutions.

source

So I'm reading this story and the whole time I'm thinking that Washington is doing the same thing again, it's not going to work as the proof is in the hearings Fwank and the rest of Congress is holding at the same time their negotiating this new monstrosity and it hits me.

Fwank, Dodd, Reid, Pelosi and Obama want these hearings going on RIGHT now so they can justify their government takeover of capitalism and they're using the so called failures of TARP as the primary reason.

The actions of this current bunch of crooks, socialist and rabble-rousers in Washington makes the last bunch of crooks, socialist and rabble-rousers look like good natured pranksters.

by Aaron Thu Feb 12, 2009 2:58 pm

I got a stimulus package of my own that says liberals can't defend this garbage.

All sums here include the disorienting zeros, as in the bill.

Title VI, Financial Services and General Government, says that "not less than $6,000,000,000 shall be used for construction, repair, and alteration of Federal buildings." There's enough money there to name a building after every Member of Congress.

The Bureau of Land Management gets $325,000,000 to spend fixing federal land, including "trail repair" and "remediation of abandoned mines or well sites," no doubt left over from the 19th-century land rush.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are getting $462,000,000 for "equipment, construction, and renovation of facilities, including necessary repairs and improvements to leased laboratories."

The National Institute of Standards gets $357,000,000 for the "construction of research facilities." The Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gets $427,000,000 for that. The country is in an economic meltdown and the federal government is redecorating.

The FBI gets $75,000,000 for "salaries and expenses." Inside the $6,200,000,000 Weatherization Assistance Program one finds "expenses" of $500,000,000. How many bureaucrats does it take to "expense" a half-billion dollars?

The current, Senate-amended version now lists "an additional amount to be deposited in the Federal Buildings Fund, $9,048,000,000." Of this, "not less than $6,000,000,000 shall be available for measures necessary to convert GSA facilities to High-Performance Green Buildings." High performance?

Sen. Tom Coburn is threatening to read the bill on the floor of the Senate. I have a better idea: Read it on "Saturday Night Live."

source

This is what happens when you rush.

This is what happens when you rush.

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