Barney Frank: “I said that President Bush asked for it at the request of President-elect Obama. How my correcting his error became…”

“I said that President Bush asked for it at the request of President-elect Obama. How my correcting his error became distancing myself from the new President is beyond me. In fact, President Bush's administration did want the second $350 billion. The gentleman is wrong in saying they didn't. Secretary Paulson was deterred from doing that, however, because we told him that we were sufficiently disappointed in the way it had been administered and that if he asked for it we would probably reject it, and that only if he came to some agreement with the new President and the Congress could that go forward. So those are the facts. Yes, the outgoing administration wanted it. They withheld because they were told they wouldn't get it unless they had cooperation, and then the two administrations jointly did that. There is no distancing when I make that point. In fact, the central point here about the TARP is this: We believe quite to the opposite that we are distancing ourselves from Mr. Obama. We believe that because Bush used this badly is no reason to give Obama not a chance to use it well.”