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Obama attacks Bush team's bailout
Source: Agencies |
January 12, 2009, Monday
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UNITED States President-elect Barack Obama criticized the Bush administration in an interview broadcast yesterday for the lack of oversight in implementing the US$700 billion federal bailout plan for the reeling US financial system and called for tighter controls on how the remaining funds are spent.
The incoming president's economic team and the Bush administration are in consultations about release of the second US$350 billion allocated under the bailout measure.
But the US Treasury Department has come under criticism for failing to provide taxpayers and Congress with sufficient disclosure about or control over the massive infusion of money into the financial system.
"Let's lay out very specifically some of the things that we are going to do with the next US$350 billion," Obama said in an interview broadcast on ABC television.
"And I think that we can regain the confidence of both Congress and the American people that this is not just money that is being given to banks without any strings attached and nobody knows what happens, but rather that it is targeted very specifically at getting credit flowing again to businesses and families."
He also voiced dissatisfaction with how the first US$350 billion was spent under the Troubled Asset Relief Program passed by Congress last fall.
"I, like many, are disappointed with how the whole TARP process has unfolded. There hasn't been enough oversight. We found out this week in a report that we are not tracking where this money is going," the president-elect said.
The Congressional Oversight Panel raised detailed questions last week about how banks are spending the first US$350 billion, how the money will combat the rising tide of home foreclosures and the US Treasury Department's overall strategy for the rescue. In instance after instance, the panel said, the Treasury Department did not offer adequate responses.
Obama declined to say whether he wants President George W. Bush to request the rest of the money before Obama is sworn in on January 20, but he said he has asked his economic team to develop a set of principles to ensure more openness about how the money is spent and to focus on using it more to help homeowners and small businesses.
Among the approaches under consideration by Obama aides and congressional Democrats are limiting executive pay at institutions that receive the money and forcing those institutions to get rid of any private aircraft they may own or lease.
"I think that when you look at how we have handled the home foreclosure situation and whether we've done enough in terms of helping families on the ground who may have lost their homes because they lost their jobs or because they got sick, we haven't done enough there," Obama said.
Obama conceded it would be difficult to enforce his pledge to ban law makers from including unessential spending projects for their districts in a second massive stimulus plan he is negotiating with Congress.
The incoming president's economic team and the Bush administration are in consultations about release of the second US$350 billion allocated under the bailout measure.
But the US Treasury Department has come under criticism for failing to provide taxpayers and Congress with sufficient disclosure about or control over the massive infusion of money into the financial system.
"Let's lay out very specifically some of the things that we are going to do with the next US$350 billion," Obama said in an interview broadcast on ABC television.
"And I think that we can regain the confidence of both Congress and the American people that this is not just money that is being given to banks without any strings attached and nobody knows what happens, but rather that it is targeted very specifically at getting credit flowing again to businesses and families."
He also voiced dissatisfaction with how the first US$350 billion was spent under the Troubled Asset Relief Program passed by Congress last fall.
"I, like many, are disappointed with how the whole TARP process has unfolded. There hasn't been enough oversight. We found out this week in a report that we are not tracking where this money is going," the president-elect said.
The Congressional Oversight Panel raised detailed questions last week about how banks are spending the first US$350 billion, how the money will combat the rising tide of home foreclosures and the US Treasury Department's overall strategy for the rescue. In instance after instance, the panel said, the Treasury Department did not offer adequate responses.
Obama declined to say whether he wants President George W. Bush to request the rest of the money before Obama is sworn in on January 20, but he said he has asked his economic team to develop a set of principles to ensure more openness about how the money is spent and to focus on using it more to help homeowners and small businesses.
Among the approaches under consideration by Obama aides and congressional Democrats are limiting executive pay at institutions that receive the money and forcing those institutions to get rid of any private aircraft they may own or lease.
"I think that when you look at how we have handled the home foreclosure situation and whether we've done enough in terms of helping families on the ground who may have lost their homes because they lost their jobs or because they got sick, we haven't done enough there," Obama said.
Obama conceded it would be difficult to enforce his pledge to ban law makers from including unessential spending projects for their districts in a second massive stimulus plan he is negotiating with Congress.
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