TARP propaganda

Booman (TARP will probably make us a profit): "at least we got our money back from the banks".
That's gotta go down as one of the dumbest statements I've ever seen blogged.
The context is the propoganda that the administration is going to be pumping out over the the next few days that with one part of the bank bailout, TARP, ending, 'we didn't give it all away' so be happy. What a load of crap:


Bailout Not Over, Taxpayers Still Owed $2 Trillion In Federal Reserve Loans and TARP Program Funds
Madison -- On October 3, 2010 the U.S. Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) will end.  The expiration is likely to generate many celebratory claims from federal government officials that the bailout is over, and that taxpayers have been made whole or will be made whole in short order.  
While it is true that many TARP bailout programs have ended, our research shows that money is still due to taxpayers under the TARP. More importantly, the research shows that the U.S. Treasury Department's ten TARP programs represent less than seven percent of the $4.7 trillion disbursed by the U.S. government in an effort to aid the financial services industry.  Far more money has been disbursed by the Federal Reserve to prop up the financial system than by the U.S. Treasury, and those loans are still outstanding.

That's via the Center for Media and Democracy's email. They provide a bit of context:

After a public outcry against bailing out the big banks, Congress voted down the bailout bill by a vote of 205-222 on September 29, 2008. It was later passed in the House and Senate the following January.   

Because there were few strings attached to the TARP bailout program (banks were not required to lend, there were no restrictions on dividends and few on executive pay and bonuses), the program has become increasingly unpopular.


 According to a recent report by the Congressional Oversight Panel, "The program is now widely perceived as bailing out Wall Street banks and domestic auto manufacturers while doing little for the millions of unemployed or struggling homeowners. Treasury acknowledges that, as a result of this perception, the TARP and its programs are now burdened by a public 'stigma'."

Booman doesn't even have the simple facts right. The TARP pricetag never reached $700 Billion, with only about half that being dispersed:




Disbursed
Outstanding


TARP
$307.6 billion (7%)
$117.7 billion (6%)


Non-TARP
$4,4152. billion (93%)
$1,815.8 billion (94%)


Total Bailout
$4,722.8 billion

$1,993.6 billion




Spinning TARP, which has over $100 billion outstanding, as some sort of godsend, is on par with hearing that combat ended in Iraq, even though 50,000 troops remain, and private contractors have tripled.
Watching people who label themselves a progressive try to spin this crap is pathetic.
Here's more on the total Wall St bailout cost via SourceWatch.

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