President G.W. Bush has requested the remainder of the TARP (Trouble Assets Relief Program) money, $350 Billion supposedly at the request of President Elect Obama. Whoever is asking for its release by Congress is not relevant at this point, what is relevant is that the original $350 Billion was distributed to Financial Institutions with no accountability to the United States People, whose money it is. The Democratic Congress had better start showing some leadership and realize that they are the Majority Party in the Congress.
If the Democratic Congress is going to approve releasing this money in the same way as the first half was released then they will have failed the American People again. This money should not be released without specific targets. Any Financial Company receiving any more of the TARP money should be mandated to bring their back office workers back to the United States and they should be mandated tire United States Citizens, all call centers and customer service centers of Financial Companies must be moved back from India, Pakistan, the Philippines and where ever else they have opened them to circumvent paying a living wage.
The Congress should also require any Financial Institution that accepts TARP money to put the money into re-financing troubled mortgages at the an interest rate not to exceed 5% above the Federal Funds Rate, the rate at which banks borrow money from the Federal Reserve, currently at .5%.
The Congress should also demand accountability for the first $350 Billion of TARP money. Secretary Paulson basically handed out this money in secret without any pre-conditions that we know of to the Financial Institutions that received the money, unless of course the pre-conditions have to do with jobs and or pay for the outgoing Administration Officials who will no longer have access to the Treasure of the United States to which they have been accustomed to having access.
Congress should act in the interest of the American People that they represent not to Corporate America. Corporations are not people, they should not have the same rights as people. Something has gone awry in the last eight years, Corporations are afforded more rights and protection and financial assistance than the People of the United States, this must stop. If the Democrats are going to continue to claim that they have a different philosophy on Governance, then they must act and prove it. The Democrats now have a substantial majority, there is no better time than now, to prove that their philosophy of Governance is in the Best Interest of the People of the United States.
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