Jan

12

TARP Money – Bush Will Make Request for Remaining $350 Billion

By Chuck · 1:54 p.m. Jan. 12 ·  Print This Post · Stumble it!

From Bloomberg:

President-elect Barack Obama asked the Bush administration to notify Congress he plans to seek the remaining $350 billion in financial-rescue funds, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Obama, who takes office on Jan. 20, called President George W. Bush this morning about 20 minutes after Bush said in his final White House news conference that he hadn’t been asked by the president-elect to act on his behalf and that he was willing to do so.

“President Bush agreed to the president-elect’s request,” Perino said. “We will continue our consultations with the president-elect’s transition team, and with Congress, on how best to proceed in accordance with the requirements of the statute.”

The request will trigger a 15-day period when Congress can vote to deny the release, and comes as Obama’s aides draft plans for broadening the program beyond the Bush administration’s focus on buying stakes in banks. The changes are likely to include a new initiative to stem mortgage foreclosures; some analysts also advocate removing assets from banks’ balance sheets and making further injections of capital into financial companies.

Lawmakers from both parties have criticized the Treasury for its shifting strategies for the $700 billion rescue fund, called the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which Congress passed in October.[...]

So there you have it. More tax payer funds to be funneled into the black holes of Wall Street firms. The first $350 Billion has been recklessly throw around by Hank Paulson. How will the next $350 Billion be spread around? Probably just more of the same as before is my guess.