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Treasury releases - finally! - TARP lobbying rules
By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
09/11/09 3:50 PM EDT
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geitner's crew made public yesterday rules for lobbying the government for a piece of that $700 billion in TARP funds. The release comes a mere 226 days after the department announced with much fanfare in January that it would be issuing new guidelines for such lobbying.
The Sunlight Foundation's Daniel Schuman has looked over the new rules and reached an interesting initial conclusion - they're an awful lot like the government's previously announced guidelines for lobbying on the $787 billion worth of stimulus projects Congress approved earlier this year.
Notes Schuman: “Considering the nearly-identical nature of the TARP lobbying rules with the stimulus lobbying rules, it is curious why it has taken so long for Treasury to promulgate these rules, and why it seems to have done so in such a quiet manner.”
Good point. And here's another: The government showed predictable bureaucratic bungling in its handling of the Cash-for-Clunkers program in the Spring, with hundreds of thousands of checks yet to be delivered to dealers who sold cars on the promise from the Obama White House that there would be reimbursements available for up to $4,500. Those dealers are now stuck with debt, waiting for the government to get its act together.
Then there is the fact the unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare continue to mount at breakneck speed, with the day of reckoning fast approaching for both when there won't be anything left in the government's cupboad to pay for benefits the government has promised for decades without making financial provision for them.
And there is President Obama's estimate during his Wednesday evening address to a joint session of Congress of hundreds of billions of dollars worth of waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, both of which are government-run health care programs.
So, tell us again, Mr. President, exactly why we should be confident the government will do a better job running this massive new health insurance program you want?
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