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Stop stalling and show us the bailout books

Examiner Editorial
-
April 16, 2009

Unwarranted secrecy regarding the largest disbursement of public funds in U.S. history continues in the executive branch. So Congress should finally exercise its oversight authority and find out where every last bailout dollar has been spent. Three major news organizations – Bloomberg News, Fox Business News, and The New York Times - had to file lawsuits against the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve Board after they were refused bailout documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). All three were stiffed by an administration that failed to deliver on a promise of more government transparency and accountability. In response to its lawsuit seeking compensation agreements between the government and two of the largest bailout recipients, Fox finally received 10,096 pages of heavily redacted documents from Treasury showing that “virtually all the details of the bailout were worked out among a handful of lawyers.” Good. Congress just needs a handful of subpoenas to get to the bottom of it.

All three news organizations still have FOIA lawsuits pending against the Fed. The Times suit, filed March 23, seeks documents concerning the Fed's decision to invoke emergency powers under the Federal Reserve Act in relation to the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and the $787 billion Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008. The paper also wants copies of all contracts with institutions that qualified for mind-boggling amounts of federal dollars in order to determine whether taxpayers were adequately protected.
The Sunlight Foundation received four names in response to its FOIA request seeking the identity of senior Treasury officials who are also members of the TARP Investment Committee – a small group that makes big decisions about which banks get how much of our money. The Government Accountability Office has already criticized them for not being sufficiently transparent in disbursing almost half of the TARP funds. Which is why Secretary Timothy Geithner and the small group of Treasury officials involved should be summoned to Capitol Hill, put under oath, and forced to tell the American people the truth - including a clear explanation of why banks that didn’t want TARP funds were forced to accept them, and why some banks are not allowed to give TARP money back.


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Reader Comments

All comments on this page are subject to our Terms of Use and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Examiner or its staff. Comment box is limited to 250 words.

betheweb

Apr 16, 2009

If I was Timmy the Taxcheat, I wouldn't want to have all the skimming and trimming displayed for the ignorant taxpayers. They might get upset.

 

Audit the Federal Reserve

Apr 16, 2009

How about a real audit of the Federal Reserve as Ron Paul has been trying to do. I would like to see, additionally, an audit of Fort Knox gold reserves to see how much of the metal is really there. We have that right.

 

jaafar

Apr 16, 2009

But what happens if THERE ARE NO BOOKS???

 

NaSa

Apr 16, 2009

jaafar, I believe your comment wins the thread. and it might actually be true as well. these books could be so cooked that it wouldnt matter if they are there - they would be meaningless anyways. Is'nt the Federal Reserve basically a fraudulent extra constitutional piece of ....? scary.

 

Whattheheck

Apr 16, 2009

The politicians can't tell you anything, if they don't know anything themselves. But I digress. That comment has nothing to do with the various bail-out monies, but rather with everday life in the halls of Congress.

 

faded beauty

Apr 17, 2009

Strange Pres. Obama wants transparency when it comes to Classified CIA documents initiated during the Bush Presidency but Transparency on TARP funds, NO WAY.

 

5tigers

Apr 17, 2009

This governmental transparency is like a one way mirror, they can see us but we will never see them. Talk is the cheapest commodity in the world. ACTION is much louder than words.

 

5tigers

Apr 17, 2009

This governmental transparency is like a one way mirror, they can see us but we will never see them. Talk is the cheapest commodity in the world. ACTION is much louder than words.

 

SignPainterGuy

Apr 20, 2009

I`d bet a week of 5tigers` pay that several billions of $`s have been secretted away to be used in the 2010 and 2012 election campaigns.

 


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