HOUSE Republican Leader John Boehner

American Taxpayers Deserve a TARP Exit Strategy

Leader Boehner has an op-ed in today’s USA Today in which he expresses his reservations about approving the second tranche – which would amount to $350 billion – of money from the so-called TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program).  The Treasury Department has already blown through the first $350 billion, but the money was spent with little transparency and virtually no accountability.  This morning in USA Today, Leader Boehner argues that unless dramatic changes are made and a clear exit strategy is defined that would get the federal government back out of the private sector, Congress should not approve the release of any further TARP money.

This program has gone off the rails.  As Leader Boehner stated in his op-ed:

Funds that were intended to buy up “toxic assets” to help unlock the credit markets at the heart of the financial crisis suddenly made their way elsewhere. Some went to help financial institutions acquire other banks. Some went to the automobile companies. And some…well, we don’t really know where some of it went. Is it any wonder that taxpayers are outraged?

Moreover, given the mismanagement of the first $350 billion, Leader Boehner asks a reasonable question:

How could Washington even consider asking middle-class families and small businesses to cough up another $350 billion for this program?

American taxpayers deserve a TARP exit strategy, and major changes in the way the program is operated.  Until taxpayers get these things, Congress should not even consider releasing the remaining TARP money

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This entry was posted on Thursday, January 15th, 2009 at 9:11 am and is filed under TARP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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