Political Quotes

“I rise to speak about TARP. The President has submitted the request for the second half of the funds. This is not an easy decision for Members of Congress. We have lots of questions about how the first $350 billion was spent. Questions came from my constituents, financial and economic experts, the oversight body. Auditors have questions, and I have questions. I said in December, the Treasury must account for the $350 billion and make the case that the action has aided our economic recovery efforts. Taxpayers were promised transparency. They deserve answers. But after Congress authorized the funds, the Treasury Department abruptly changed course and instead provided billions of dollars in direct capital injections into banks without any requirement that they write down bad debt. To date we do not have any answer why the change was made. Perhaps the Treasury realized it could not operationally manage it. Perhaps it was because the Europeans had adopted a direct capital injection approach. But we do not know. The change is not as important as is the explanation and justification.”