It’s been used to buy one car company, give another to union allies, punish non-union workers, undermine the bankruptcy code, enrich Wall Street at the expense of Main Street, keep unionized Zombie firms from dying, and generally terrorize the world economy. Now the left in Congress wants to use it again, this time as a slush fund for a third round of stimulus funding. The AP reports:
Democrats are looking to tap as much as $70 billion in unused funds from the Wall Street bailout to pay for new spending on roads and bridges and to save the jobs of firefighters, teachers and other public employees, officials said Thursday.
After talks with the administration officials such as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Democratic lawmakers are eyeing what remains from last year’s $700 billion financial rescue package as a way to finance job-related legislation. Two House Democratic aides said the figure could be as high as $70 billion.
The economic crisis that led to the adoption of TARP is over. Rather than serves as a necessary tool to avoid an systemic collapse of the financial system, TARP has become at best just another source of stimulus spending, and at worst a slush fund providing ready cash, with little or no accountability, to whatever industry or firm the Treasury Department chooses to support. The continued existence of TARP does nothing but enable the completely undemocratic and unaccountable Obama Czar State.
