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Before releasing the next $350 billion, what happened to the first?

When Hank Paulson scared Congress into passing the Troubled Asset Relief Plan (TARP) last fall, he said that it would be used to buy toxic waste from banks. That never happened. All we know is that $350 billion of our taxpayer money is gone and that most of it went to banks and a bit to the auto industry. What are they doing with our money? How is the government measuring the success of TARP? Is it helping? Until we get those answers, we should not allow more good money to be thrown after bad.

What we have now is a bunch of talk. Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND) said "Without the first TARP, we may have a Dow at 4,000 right now and the economy in an absolutely free fall." Thanks Kent -- I'd like to see your proof for that claim. Why not Dow 400? Progress on finding out what happened to the money is coming from Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) who got Treasury to cough up contracts between the government and 10 financial institutions -- by threatening a subpoena.

Continue reading Before releasing the next $350 billion, what happened to the first?

Bush announces new $3.1 trillion budget plan

American President George Bush announced his new budget spending plan today, and the package came out to a total of $3.1 trillion.

Today's federal budget proposal marks the first time in America's history that a budget plan has been in excess of $3 trillion. Bush claims that his budget is "good" and "solid" and that the passing of this budget will help keep the troubled American economy growing.

All in all, this budget looks to lift government spending by 6% during the fiscal year 2009, and it will probably come to no one's surprise that defense gets a nice little boost from today's budget. Bush is looking to allocate 8.2% of his spending on security, and the budget is looking to stake a $70 billion "placeholder" for war costs during 2009. The Pentagon should be pleased with its figures, as Bush is looking to allocate $515.4 billion its way... the highest allocation since WWII (and represents a 7.5% jump).

Continue reading Bush announces new $3.1 trillion budget plan

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Last updated: November 10, 2009: 06:00 PM

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