Last year’s financial bailout package was, strictly speaking, an investment. The federal government was going to buy up toxic assets, and some day sell them. That never happened, and instead the money was spend to buy equity in banks and bankrupt automobile companies. Still, TARP was an investment. To be sure, it was mostly a bad investment, but we will see some proceeds eventually. In the long run, it might even break even. If not, the cost will certainly be defrayed significantly from the original $700 billion. And all the proceeds go directly to reduce the national debt.
For Barney Frank (who happens to be one of the people most responsible for the financial crisis in the first place), repaying that money is unacceptable. Frank wants to take any TARP proceeds and spend it on his own priorities. In fact, he actually wants to use TARP proceeds to muck with the housing market some more. (No joke!)
Not paying off debts you were scheduled to pay off is the same thing as borrowing. So, what this is, is a stealthy liberal spending plan in the neighborhood of $700 billion (an amount that was considered enormous just one year ago). It should get public scrutiny commensurate with that.
(Via Power Line.)
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