We Could Be On The Hook For $7 Trillion

Obamamessiah, have you been listening to your underlings. The Treasury Department has not resolved its problem with giving and getting an accounting relative to the TARP funds. According to ABCNews.com

"Our concern right now is that we do not seem to be a priority for the Treasury Department," the Congressional Oversight Panel's Elizabeth Warren told a Senate Finance Committee hearing today. "We have sent letters. We have requested that there be someone named so that we can get technical information. And so far, we have not been a first priority."

"I'm talking about accountability in a very real sense of this word," she said later. "As I see it, you really have two options here. Either you get Treasury to get some religion on this point -- and put their own standards in place, or Congress is forced to step in. We will do everything we can on your behalf, as your congressional oversight panel, but what we can best do for you now is to identify and pinpoint that this is precisely where the problem starts. And then the problem has roll down effects all the way through the system of lack of accountability, complexity that no one can figure out what's going on, so that we never identify the place where we need to start the solution."

Neil Barofsky, Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief ProgramB also expressed concerns because his office now has to monitor nearly $3 trillion.

"$2.9 trillion is just short of what the entire federal government spent in fiscal year 2008," noted committee chairman Max Baucus. "It's like having a second United States government budget dedicated solely to saving the financial system, and that is truly surreal."

Baucus cautioned that this number could skyrocket to $7 trillion when other measures are added, such as $3 trillion in Federal Reserve programs, Treasury's $400 billion support for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the administration's budget request for a placeholder worth up to $750 billion.

"If all these additional amounts materialize, taxpayers could be on the hook for a total of more than $7 trillion," Baucus said. "This is a huge, unprecedented financial commitment. It strains the comprehension of taxpayers and policy-makers alike."

Obama Makes Treasury Secretary Pick That Is On Target

Today, President-elect Obama appeared to make his first untainted nomination in Timothy Geithner as Treasury Secretary. Geithner was appointed to head the New York Federal Reserve on October 15, 2003. His appointment by the New York Federal Reserve Bank's Board of Directors was approved by the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and announced by Mr. Peter Peterson, chair of the New York Federal Reserve Bank's Board of Directors and of the search committee that selected Mr. Geithner.

If you've been reading my blog I have been consistent that the problems with Washington are the Republicans and the Democrats, DemRepubagogues if you will. Peter Peterson wrote a book titled "Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It".

Here's a commentary to sum up the book-

"Peterson takes the role of an extraordinary flight attendant preparing 290 million passengers for a hard landing--but the landing he anticipates involves not jetliners hitting the tarmac but rather the entire American economy spiraling into insolvency. Basing his conclusions on one inescapable economic reality, Peterson argues that twin deficits in trade and government spending now require an astounding infusion of $4 billion in foreign capital every day just to avert economic meltdown in this country. And foreign investors are growing weary of propping up the U.S. economy while American political leaders ignore the perilously unbalanced government budget. Unfortunately, Peterson finds both major parties locked into pathologically rigid ideologies of denial. While Democrats push for ever-larger entitlements for ever-more interest groups, Republicans press for ever-deeper tax cuts. Neither party will initiate the reforms--succinctly outlined here by Peterson--essential to safeguard the country's long-term financial health. Sobering, urgent, and evenhanded. Bryce Christensen"

Let's pray that Daschle knows what the heck he is doing when he tries to fashion universal health care. More entitlement with no financial substance behind it will not serve any purpose for this country.