Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) short about 30% of being repaid


To those who voted for this program with Bush but abhorred it with Obama, should this be welcomed news or something that they wish not to acknowledge?

According to an article by Los Angeles Times writer Jim Puzzangher titled TARP is 70% repaid after AIG makes $6.9-billion payment, Treasury Department says, “The Treasury Department has recovered 70% of the money distributed under the $700-billion bailout fund after American International Group paid back $6.9 billion of the money it owed.”   “Although Congress put $700 billion into the fund, the department disbursed only $411 billion.”  “We’re optimistic that as we continue to wind down TARP, our temporary investments in private companies will ultimately result in little or no cost to taxpayers taken as a whole,” said Tim Massad, the Treasury official who oversees TARP.”  “The Congressional Budget Office estimated in November that the government would lose $14 billion on the AIG bailout. But after the stock-conversion deal and a rise in AIG's stock price, the Fed and the Treasury Department have said they did not expect to lose any money.”   “For taxpayers to break even on the 1.655 billion shares of AIG common stock they now own, they would need a price of $28.72 a share. Tuesday's closing price for AIG stock was $37.31.”

Depending on with whom you are speaking, if this is true, it’s not bad for an administration that can’t seem to do anything right.  Image taxpayers being made completely whole from a program which first came to congress on a single sheet of paper only a few days or so before the previous administration skipped town.  Considering the number of campaign promises made and kept, when will it become time to question what you must but acknowledge what you learn?   I guess that may be asking too much.

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