First $350 Billion Of Bailout Fund Almost Gone

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

Associated Press
December 9, 2008

Reporting from Washington -- The government has just $15 billion left to spend from the first $350-billion pot of financial bailout money, the Treasury Department announced Monday.

The department said $335 billion has been allocated from the first half of the $700-billion program, which was enacted Oct. 3. The accounting was contained in a report to Congress.

Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, who is overseeing the program, is considering tapping the second $350 billion. The main goal of the program is to get financial institutions lending more freely, which would help revive the economy.

--SNIP
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers have blasted Paulson for his handling of the $700-billion package, complaining that his shifts in strategy sent confusing signals to the public and Wall Street, and hurt confidence in the government's ability to deal with the crisis.

Paulson has defended his management, including his decision to officially abandon the original rescue strategy: buying delinquent mortgages and other bad debt from banks to free up their balance sheets and spur lending.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bailoutfunds9-2008dec09,0,4127731.story?track=rss

[JDPriestly]

1. And here at DU we are excited about Blagojevich's alleged corruption.

Wow. Talk about corruption, and Congress and Obama OK'd these hand-outs to Bush loyalist banks. This is bad, bad, bad. This is criminal.

Blagojevich may also be a criminal but he is peanuts compared to the criminals that pulled the bail-out.

[OwnedByFerrets]

2. One simple question...and I dont think its asking too much.....

Where is it?

[spin]

5. Someday we will find out where the money went...

and I'll bet we'll be really pissed.

Bush always came across as being somewhat mentally challenged, but boy could he convince people to join him in hair brained ideas like the Iraq war or this bailout plan. He definitely was able to use the politics of fear to get his way.

[ShortnFiery]

3. NO MORE! eom

[KakistocracyHater]

4. Bush royallists

trash!

[az chela]

6. Paulson has to go and he also has to account for every

cent of the money.He is a damn crook and he hasnt helped anyone but the ceos and big corporations

[Raschel]

8. What happened to checks and balances? How does Paulson have so much power? He is our czar.

[leftofthedial]

7. the repukes done made 'em another haul!

steal $10 at the 7-11 and get 2-10 hard time.

steal $350 billion and get the help of Congress.

[struggle4progress]

9. Wow. Paulson's been flushing $3.5 million a minute, 24/7, for two months

I never ever ever want to hear another Republican pretend to be a fiscal conservative. Never. I mean it. Never.

[politicalfan08]

10. Dennis Kucinich talks about Auto Bail-Out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXBR3KtAL_A

[rvablue]

11. Obviously there has to be an account for these distributions, so why didn't they

just publish it on a website.

Of course, there will be Congressional hearings years or months from now and nobody will be able to say where any of it went.

Followed by mild outrage until another story drowns it out in the MSM echo chamber.

My take: we've all been victims of the greatest robbery in the history of mankind.

On this one I gotta say, it's not just Bush and Paulson, but the Democratic Party that let us down....it would have been very simple to have complete openess with this...simply by demanding it...either the banks needed the money or they didn't and weren't in any position to demand anything.

We're all chumps.

[w4rma]

12. That SOB had better give a full accounting of where EVERYTHING went. (nt)

[FreeStateDemocrat]

13. No mas!