Morning Bell: The President’s Permanent Political Slush Fund

Heritage Foundation ^ | February 3rd

[Halfmanhalfamazing]

After suffering major electoral and legislative defeats last month, President Barack Obama took to the campaign trail in Nashua, New Hampshire, pitching his administration’s latest new plan to lower our nation’s double digit unemployment rate. This time, the President hopes to do for small businesses what Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did for home mortgages. Specifically, he wants to create a new $30 billion “Small Business Lending Fund” which will loan money to banks with assets under $10 billion at favorable new rates, as long as they comply with a slew of new regulations designed to incentivize them to loan that money to small businesses. Never mind that a recent poll of small business owners by the National Federation of Independent Businesses ranked “Finance and Interest Rates” as the second to last most important problem facing their business.

And just where does the President plan to get this new $30 billion? The President explained yesterday: “This proposal takes the money that was repaid by Wall Street banks to provide capital for community banks on Main Street.” In other words, TARP – the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program first signed into law by President George Bush, and then used by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to force many financial firms into taking taxpayer money they never wanted in the first place. But if Wall Street banks are paying-back their TARP funds, then how can President Obama say the following when justifying his Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee:

[whitedog57]

TARP is a child of Congressional corruption. As soon as it was formed, the banks told Geithner that they didn’t want to sell their toxic assets and would prefer to be bailed out. After that, it was just a slush fund for Obama/Geithner and the banks.

Our government is corrupt and in bed with the big banks and Wall Street. Although many people have bought into the homeownership dream, you are supporting the Democrats and the corrupt banking/GSEs by taking out a loan that goes through BofA, JPMC, WF and Citi and sold to FHA/Fannie/Freddie.

[G Larry]

There will arise an impeachment angle to this UNCONTITUTIONAL USE of TARP!

[kalee]

for later reading

[Texas resident]

I am amazed at this admins’ utter ignorance about business. First they wrecked the economy in order to win an election, they turn around and tell businesses to go out and take on more debt. No one is going to borrow money to expand when the govt has them in the crosshairs for destruction. Only speeds up the process.
obama and geithner couldn’t make a go of a lemonaide stand. If they followed their own advice, they would be broke before noon.

[RSmithOpt]

Let’s give small businesses a $30 billion tax break instead.....

[Eye of Unk]

I want to know how much Obama is spending on a daily basis to all those involved with fighting his opponents, in the hiding of his past, of the bribes to those that were intimate with his past and those promised positions of power in exchange for introducing socialism.

I’ll take a wild guess and say its at least $5 million PER day.

Of taxpayers money.