$23.7 Trillion to Fix Financial System?
ABC News
By MATTHEW JAFFE
July 20, 2009
“The total potential federal government support could reach up to $23.7 trillion,” says Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, in a new report obtained Monday by ABC News on the government’s efforts to fix the financial system.
Yes, $23.7 trillion.
“The potential financial commitment the American taxpayers could be responsible for is of a size and scope that isn’t even imaginable,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., ranking member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “If you spent a million dollars a day going back to the birth of Christ, that wouldn’t even come close to just $1 trillion — $23.7 trillion is a staggering figure.”
Granted, Barofsky is not saying that the government will definitely spend that much money. He is saying that potentially, it could.
At present, the government has about 50 different programs to fight the current recession, including programs to bail out ailing banks and automakers, boost lending and beat back the housing crisis. Barofsky’s estimate means that if each federal agency spends the maximum potential amount involved in these 50 different initiatives — if the Federal Reserve ends up spending $6.8 trillion on its programs. If the Treasury Department spends $4.4 trillion, if the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation spends $2.3 trillion, and so on — then the numbers add up to a total of $23.7 trillion.
But in his new quarterly report to Congress that will be released Tuesday, the watchdog warns that hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars could be lost if the government does not make certain changes to these programs. The Treasury Department, he cautions, needs to increase the transparency of the $700 billion TARP program, which he says has grown to an unprecedented scope and scale.
“Although Treasury has taken some steps toward improving transparency in TARP programs, it has repeatedly failed to adopt recommendations that SIGTARP believes are essential to providing basic transparency and fulfill Treasury’s stated commitment to implement TARP with the highest degree of accountability and transparency possible,” Barofsky says in the report.
Barofsky said his office currently has 35 ongoing civil or criminal investigations.
Barofsky notes that there are currently four specific recommendations that the Treasury Department has not adopted. The department, he believes, should require all TARP recipients to report on their use of funds. The department should also report on the values of its TARP portfolio so taxpayers know about the value of their investments; disclose the identity of any TALF borrowers; and disclose tradings, holdings and valuations of assets of the public-private investment funds that will be buying toxic assets from banks.
It is a 3 page article you can continue HERE….thank you.
Wild Thing’s comment……..
There is no price tag for Obama on what he is willing to spend to destroy the United States of America. He wants to hold the rope while America swings. $24 trillion to create 1,000 “green” jobs.
Uh? Look at the education system, a microcosm of the big Obama plan, it has been broken for over 60 years, money is the fix every year. Tip, there isn’t enough money on the entire planet to fix the woes of Communism.
Most of the money will be spent/committed, but it won’t be used to fix much. Crooks will get a big chunck of it while a lot of it will be wasted. Meantime we the citizens will continue to send the same crooks back to Washington DC.
We are so far in the Financial Hole I don’t think we will ever get out of it. Medicare is an unfunded Liability, which obama wants to cut, in order to pay the his commie Health Care plan.
There are nothing but IOUs in Social Secuirity, the great ponzi scheme created by Roosevelt, now obama want to trash that too. The problem with SS is there are too many Boomers coming to age 65 and there won’t be enough to pay all of them. This is when IT will hit the fecal oscillator. Both parties are guilty of spending too much money in order to get re-elected, too many promises made, promises broken and now it time to pay up.
Jack,Amen to that. I bet a person could
buy every country for that amount of
money. ( whispering because I don’t
want Obama to hear that he might
do it. )
Tom, I agree sooooo much. This whole thing
and all the other bailout and stimulus
packages are all corrupt and there is
no one honest over seeing it at all.
They even admit they have no clue where
all the money goes. I am so ticked off
about this. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Mark, well said, your right. OH this makes
me feel so sick. whew.