by Brett Roberts
You know what my new favorite fairy tale is? It’s a really short one written by a new child’s author named Barack Obama. Do you have your blanket? Here it is: “Many originally feared that most of the $700 billion in TARP money would be lost, but because of the management of this program by Secretary Geithner and my economic team, we’ve now recovered the majority of the funds provided to banks.”
Wasn’t that wonderful? It may be harder to understand in it’s fairy tale form. Let me share the true story that this tale is loosely based on: “The taxpayers originally feared that most of the temporary $700 billion loan borrowed from China to bail out banks would never be able to be repaid, but the banks were able to pay most of it back. Thanks to Secretary Geithner, Obama’s economic team, and White House lawyers, the government is now overriding the original intent of the this loan, and is going to use the repaid money to fund liberal programs and not use it to pay back the national debt that this loan created.”
That’s not as fun to hear, is it? Barack is much better at writing fairy tales than I am.
When this bill was passed, Congress told us that this was just a loan to the banks, and we could potentially get all that money back. Senators even wrote into the bill that the money, when returned, had to go to pay off the national debt that it created. Well, now that we’re getting the money back under this new Administration, Obama’s lawyers have determined that the “wording” of the TARP bill allows them to spend the money as they please. They don’t even need to bother us with the details. Isn’t that wonderful?
We passed a bill that’s become a magic money kettle for liberal programs. One that’s as big as the entire cost of the Iraq war to date. Just think of the fun this Administration will have with it.
Here’s a fairy tale that I’m working on: “Obama was President, and we all lived happily ever after…” Yeah, it needs some work. Even fairy tales have to be at least somewhat believable.
