President: Use TARP Funds for Jobs Package - Gregg: TARP Cash for Job Package Illegal

[bigtree]

President Considering Using Bank Bailout Funds For Job Creation

12/7/2009 - (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Monday that money not spent under a controversial $700 billion bank bailout package could be used to cut the towering U.S. deficit and ease double-digit unemployment.

Obama told reporters after a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan that TARP - Troubled Asset Relief Program - had turned out to be much cheaper than expected, freeing up cash to pay down the deficit and boost jobs.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/12/07/us/politics/politics-us-usa-obama-tarp.html?pagewanted=print



Sen Gregg:Using TARP Cash For Jobs Package Would Be Illegal

WASHINGTON - A top Republican budget hawk said Monday any move by congressional Democrats or the Obama administration to reuse money from the Treasury Department's financial rescue plan to help offset the cost of another job creation package would be illegal.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R., N.H.), the senior Republican on the Senate Budget Committee and a renowned fiscal conservative, said reusing unspent or repaid Troubled Asset Relief Program funds would break the 2008 law enacting the rescue plan.

It would be "totally a violation not only of the letter of the law, but of the spirit of the law," Gregg told reporters Monday.

Gregg was one of the lawmakers who negotiated the details of the rescue plan last fall. He said the law states that any money returned to the fund must be used automatically to pay down the federal budget deficit.

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=200912071508dowjonesdjonline000281&title=us-sen-greggusing-tarp-cash-for-jobs-package-would-be-illegal

[DebbieCDC]

1. Then let Congress amend that stupid fucking law

Jeebus, and this was the guy Obama wanted to put in his cabinet????

[Craftsman]

2. IF the bill says the money must be used to pay down debt then it must be

Not saying the law can't be ammended but if this is true then Obama should not violate the law.

[Winterblues]

3. Stupid Law

Our Debt is not like ordinary debt. It is mostly in Treasury Bonds, and paying them off before they come due is extremely costly because of the penalties involved. It isn't like paying off a bank note...It should be used though in place of new Bonds issued..