Post by dgriffin on Dec 8, 2009 20:17:38 GMT -5
Obama eyes repaid gov't bank loans for jobs help
WASHINGTON — Under heavy pressure to get Americans back to work, President Barack Obama on Monday suggested using a suddenly available pot of money left over from the government's bank bailout to help create more jobs.
Obama, who will address the subject in a speech on Tuesday, has been struggling to trim the nation's painfully high unemployment rate, now at 10 percent, just below a quarter-century high.
The administration and its allies on Capitol Hill would have to get around a provision of the 2008 bailout legislation that requires money that is paid back by banks or left over to be used exclusively for reducing the federal deficit.
With a tough election year coming up, Obama and congressional Democrats want badly to do something about jobs. Turning a highly unpopular financial rescue program, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), into a potentially popular one with new jobs attached has strong political appeal — although Republican critics have depicted such an approach as a backdoor way of putting a second economic stimulus package into force.
It was the clearest signal yet that the White House might be planning to argue that helping unlock credit for small businesses is in line with the original goals of the bank bailout bill and thus a valid expenditure of federal money — with more job creation a byproduct.
www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jy6s4th2AWz2wvrF9UGpJs3t_WxgD9CERQF80
This is patently dishonest. The public was promised that any returned money from the bailout would go to deficit reduction. Instead, Obama wants to fund a questionable program to score political points.
