Is President Obama really serious about tackling the federal deficit and the national debt as he has recently stated? His plans for what to do with unspent and repaid TARP money show that he and his allies in Congress are unable to resist spending any funds that they get their hands on.
When Congress passed the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) last year to rescue banks and other financial institutions from potential collapse we were told that the true cost to American taxpayers would be much less since the recipients would pay back the money as they return to financial health.
So far $71 billion have been repaid This does not include $45 billion that Bank of America has announced last week it will repay. Another $226.5 billion of TARP money has never been spent.
So including the Bank of America repayment, almost half the TARP funds are available to reduce the debt we incurred last year.
That is not what the Obama administration and Nancy Pelosi’s Congressional Democrats plan to do. They now advocate spending $100 billion or more on a job creation package.
Unemployment is certainly a serious problem for the millions of Americans who have lost their jobs during this recession.
However, Obama’s $800 billion stimulus program has demonstrated the futility of the federal government spending money to “create jobs.” The Obama administration’s claims on the number of jobs “created or saved” have been shown to be fraudulent. The government web site that reports on jobs “created or saved” by Congressional district reported jobs in Congressional districts that don’t exist and double-counted numerous jobs. Measuring “jobs saved” has been a meaningless statistic.
What the American economy needs for private enterprise to create jobs is a return to fiscal responsibility, lower taxes and an end to the uncertainty created by the numerous activities to expand government and union power that are being pursued by our hyperactive government.
{ 2 trackbacks }