The Bailout Needs a Bailout
Posted December 30th, 2008 at 11:39am in Enterprise and Free Markets 
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Covering the Bush Administration’s latest attempt to save the free-market by abandoning free-market principles, The Washington Post reports:
The new loans push the government’s planned investments under the financial rescue beyond the $350 billion that Congress has authorized; in order to make all the investments that Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. has agreed to, Congress would need to approve a second $350 billion infusion into the so-called Troubled Asset Relief Program.
A Treasury official said last night that the government has not committed all of the money in the $250 billion pot set aside to make investments in financial institutions, so the Treasury has leeway to direct some of that cash to GMAC.
“It’s not fair to say we’ve overcommitted,” said the official, adding that many of the expected bank investments are still being reviewed by bank regulators.
To recap, the Bush Administration’s latest $6 billion bailout of GMAC, bringing the first round of the GM bailout total to $23.4 billion, pushes the total money committed by the Troubled Asset Relief Program past the initial $350 billion authorized by Congress. In other words, TARP now has now made specific promises to spend more money than it actually has the authority to spend. The bailout is now in need of a bailout.
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8 Responses to “The Bailout Needs a Bailout”
Millare, Missouri on December 30th, 2008 at 11:39am said:
Anyone else need “bailout” monies? What a mess!!!!!:(
HagbardCeline on December 30th, 2008 at 11:39am said:
Priming the pump doesn’t work that way. Americans will not buy American-made automobiles in sufficient numbers. CAFE needs to be repealed because it’s another government thorn in the auto-industry. You can’t stimulate an economy by getting people to take on more debt! People can’t finance their way into prosperity, it just doesn’t work. Someone has to pay sometime. And with the Fed literally PRINTING 2 or 3 trillion in the last few months, inflation is going to smack us upside the head.
Barry Lewis on December 30th, 2008 at 11:39am said:
Please, please lets give up the Keynesian Economic crapola of “priming the pump”, along with the rest of the discredited myths of economics. Consumers – not the Government – are where the engines of economic capital lie. Ford Credit and GMAC are not the sole lenders of car loans. There are banks and credit unions galore that are still in business and I am approved for a car loan as I type this.
I for one will be horsewhipped before I purchase any vehicle from General Motors. They took my tax money instead because it was far easier to lobby Congress for cash, rather than make a competitive product and negotiate a sales price that I was willing to pay.
I will only purchase Honda and Toyota – and Ford unless they too take my tax dollars.
WarEagle, Washington, DC on December 30th, 2008 at 11:39am said:
Gosh! Who could have predicted that the Bush administration would fail to act in a fiscally responsible way? I DID NOT SEE THIS COMING!
Paul, Minnesota on December 30th, 2008 at 11:39am said:
Sounds like the very definition of a ponzi scheme. I better get a bailout package soon, I don’t want to be the one holding the bag at the end.
Charlie, Michigan on December 30th, 2008 at 11:39am said:
Absolutely amazing! Good thing they know better than their constituents (sarcasm intended). It’s the PEOPLE who need help.
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein
unseen on December 30th, 2008 at 11:39am said:
And with the Fed literally PRINTING 2 or 3 trillion in the last few months, inflation is going to smack us upside the head.
even with the $3 trillion in “NEW” money it does not begin to replace the $60 trillion wiped away from Credit default swaps (side bets made by banks) do the math take the $7 trillion wiped out in the stock market, the $4 to $5 trillion wiped out from the home vaules and now the $trillions wiped out by Credit default swaps and we have a whole lot of DEFLATION coming before inflation is ever a problem
Rick Smith-Rhome,TX on December 30th, 2008 at 11:39am said:
Toyota, Honda, BMW, Hyundai, Nissan, etal, who have factories in the US, are already taking tax money and have been for years. They got hugh multi-year tax subsidies to build and operate their factories.