Herman Cain

Herman Cain: My Support For TARP Could Be A Problem

Evan McMorris-Santoro | June 9, 2011, 6:45AM

GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain

Herman Cain was once one of TARP's strongest supporters. In fact, he still thinks the idea was a good one, in theory anyway. This puts Cain in direct opposition to the tea party followers largely responsible for his meteoric rise of late up the Republican presidential polls.

Cain acknowledges this could be an issue.

"If they want to nail me with my support for TARP -- you know what? I'm not going to be able to counter that," Cain told TPM in a wide-ranging interview last weekend. "Here's what we will do -- we will have a spot on our website that says, 'if you really want to know the truth about my position on TARP, go look at this two-minute video.' If they choose not to, I can't change that."

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Bush Tax Cuts

Dems: The Real TARP Is Republicans' 'Tax Assistance for Rich People'

Brian Beutler | September 15, 2010, 5:32PM

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Rep. Chris Van Hollen, (D-MD) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. George Miller (D-CA), and Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC)

Dems are ready to take a new punchline out for a test drive.

In a debate last night with former McCain adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin, influential Democrat John Podesta described the GOP plan for the permanent extension of President Bush's tax cuts for wealthy people as "TARP": Tax Assistance for Rich People.

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Economy

In New Study, Two Economists Argue That Bush And Obama's Intervention Prevented Depression

Eric Kleefeld | July 28, 2010, 11:18AM

Pres. Obama and Fmr. Pres. George W. Bush

So has the Obama economic program been working? While the economy certainly continues to have problems, the Obama administration -- and some members of the Bush administration -- have consistently argued that things would have been worse without their intervention. And now, two economists have published a study arguing in favor of that very idea, saying that there's quantitative evidence that the interventions of the Obama and Bush administrations helped avert a depression.

As the New York Times reports, a new economic paper from Princeton professor and former Fed vice chair Alan S. Blinder and Moody's chief economist Mark Zandi argues that the combination of financial reforms such as TARP, bank stress tests and emergency lending by the Fed, plus the stimulus, have indeed saved the economy from far worse problems.

The report also finds that while the financial reforms alone would have been been stronger than the stimulus alone, the whole is not directly comparable to the sum of the parts in isolation, "because the policies tend to reinforce each other."

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Financial Reform

One Down, One To Go: House Passes Historic Wall Street Reform Bill

Brian Beutler | June 30, 2010, 7:00PM

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and House Democratic Leadership.

By a vote of 237-192, the House of Representatives this afternoon voted to pass final legislation dramatically changing the rules that govern the financial industry. Nineteen Democrats joined 173 Republicans in opposing the legislation, which, in addition to limiting the risky practices that lead to the 2008 collapse, will create a new federal agency dedicated to protecting consumers from predatory financial products, and bring to a close the Troubled Asset Relief Plan -- the bailout program created by the Congress in the midst of the financial crisis. Three Republicans voted for the bill, and four members (two Democrats, two Republicans) did not vote.

The Senate is set to take up identical legislation shortly after they return from next week's Independence Day recess. Democrats had hoped to send the Wall Street reform bill to President Obama by weeks end, but last minute hiccups in the Senate -- objections of key Republicans and the death of Robert Byrd -- ultimately made that impossible.

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Financial Reform

Collins 'Inclined' To Support Wall Street Reform

Brian Beutler | June 30, 2010, 1:02PM

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME)

Scott Brown's playing cute, but his fellow moderate Republican Susan Collins says she's basically ready to vote for Wall Street reform.

"Based on my initial review of the conference review, I'm inclined to support it," Collins told reporters this afternoon after a Senate vote. "I believe that it will improve the regulation of financial institutions and much needed transparency to the process, and that it will help prevent the kinds of risky practices that triggered this recession.

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Financial Reform

GOPers So Opposed To Wall Street Regulation That They Voted For Bailout Continuation

Brian Beutler | June 30, 2010, 12:15PM

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) speaks with Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) on Capitol Hill.

Republicans have spent the better part of two years distancing themselves from bailouts and hitting Democrats for supporting them. But given a choice between continuing the 2008 bank bailout and regulating Wall Street, several Republicans voted last night (and almost all of them will ultimately vote) to keep the bailout alive.

Last night, in a scramble to save the bill in the wake of Sen. Scott Brown's (R-MA) objections to the conference report, Democrats worked with moderate Republicans to figure out a new way to pay for Wall Street reform. What they came up with was pretty simple: end the TARP legislation (i.e., the much-maligned bank bailout) early. Every Republican negotiator on the conference committee objected, some vociferously.

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) called it "fraud on the American people."

Not to be outdone, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) called it "smoke and mirrors."

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Financial Reform

Dems and Republicans Clash Over Wall Street Reform Fix

Brian Beutler | June 29, 2010, 5:51PM

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)

Late update: Financial reform negotiators agreed tonight on a party line vote to make fixes sought by Sens. Scott Brown, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe, changing the way the legislation will be paid for. Speaking to reporters after the impromptu conference committee session, House Financial Services Committee Chair Barney Frank implied strongly that he'd received assurances that the Senate now has 60 votes to pass Wall Street reform. The House will likely take the bill up tomorrow, while the Senate may have to wait until after the July 4 recess to hold its final vote.

Here's how Democrats propose to placate moderate Republicans, who've been threatening to renege on their previous support for Wall Street reform. Instead of paying for the $19 billion cost of financial regulation bill by taxing big banks, the legislation will now raise money in two ways: Ending TARP, and raising the minimum target for FDIC's Deposit Insurance Fund.

Democrats took the extraordinary step this evening of reconvening the financial reform conference committee and making the switch in order to secure 60 votes for the legislation in the Senate. Brown said he'd bolt from the bill without a new pay-for, and Maine Republicans Collins and Snowe made similar threats, leaving Democrats likely vulnerable to a Republican financial reform filibuster.

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AR-SEN

SEIU Ad Attacks Lincoln For Wall Street Bailout (VIDEO)

Eric Kleefeld | June 1, 2010, 12:11PM

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)

The politically powerful union SEIU has a new ad attacking Sen. Blanche Lincoln in the June 8 Arkansas Democratic primary runoff, going after Lincoln's vote for the TARP bailout.

"Blanche Lincoln claims she's standing firm against Wall Street. But Lincoln voted to use our tax dollars to bail out Wall Street banks," the announcer says. This is a clear effort to discredit Lincoln's current work on financial reform, and to leverage the TARP issue that already helped to unseat Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT) at his state GOP convention.

The TPM Poll Average currently gives Lt. Gov. Bill Halter a lead of 47.3%-44.7%.

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Financial Crisis

Pelosi: Bush Admin Barred Officials From Briefing Congress On Impending Financial Crisis in Fall 2008

Brian Beutler | May 3, 2010, 2:39PM

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks alongside Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson

Nearly two years after the Wall Street meltdown drove the U.S. economy to the brink of collapse, and forced the U.S. government to prop up major financial institutions with hundreds of billions of dollars, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now claims that the Bush Administration prohibited its own top officials who were handling the emerging crisis from briefing Congress until a complete financial collapse was only hours away.

In little-noticed statements to reporters over the last few weeks, Pelosi has alleged that the Bush administration knew well in advance of its intervention that the financial crisis would hit, and that Congress would need to authorize a historic and unpopular bailout - but that top officials, including then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, told her that they had been barred from briefing Congress about true extent of the crisis.

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John McCain

McCain: It Wasn't Just Me -- America Was 'Misled' On TARP (VIDEO)

Evan McMorris-Santoro | February 28, 2010, 12:54PM

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

Speaking on NBC's Meet The Press this morning, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) repeated his claim that he -- and the entire country -- was lied to about the TARP program in 2007.

Asked about the claim by host David Gregory, McCain was adamant. "We were all misled" by Bush administration Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, McCain said.

Video of the exchange, and the transcript, after the jump.

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John McCain

McCain Rewrites Own History On Bailout Vote

Zachary Roth | February 23, 2010, 6:18PM

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

It's no secret that in seeking to fend off a conservative primary challenger, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been scrambling to his right faster than you can say "cap-and-trade." But now, in a bid to explain his vote for the bailout, the Arizona senator is flat out rewriting history.

McCain said recently that he only voted for the $700 billion package because Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke misled him, by assuring him it would focus on the housing meltdown, rather than on Wall Street. But that appears to be directly contradicted by the record.

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Bailout

Poll Shows Wide Support For New Taxes On Bailed-Out Financial Sector

Eric Kleefeld | January 26, 2010, 12:45PM

President Barack Obama

A Rasmussen poll shows fertile ground for a populist initiative currently being pursued by President Obama: bank taxes and regulation.

The recent proposal to tax the 50-largest banks, as a way to recover losses from the bailouts, is favored by a margin of 56%-28%. A relatively heavier tax on larger banks and financial institutions was also favored by a margin of 49%-28%. Respondents also favored limitations on how big a bank can get, by a margin of 45%-33%, and approved of limits on the type of investments banks can make by a margin of 49%-29%. People also favored taxing bonuses paid by large financial companies, at a higher rate than other income, by 55%-25%.

From the pollster's analysis: "These attitudes come from a nation angry about the bailouts. While Congress was debating the initial bailout funding, just 24% of voters liked the idea. Just 35% initially favored a bailout for General Motors and opposition to that bailout grew over time."

Barack Obama

Obama's Next Economic Push To Be Staged At Home Depot

Christina Bellantoni | December 12, 2009, 4:04PM

President Barack Obama

President Obama will be hosting a discussion about his new home retrofitting proposal at a Washington-area Home Depot.

The White House announced this afternoon that Obama will speak at an invitation-only event at Home Depot Tuesday about the "economic impacts of energy saving home retrofits."

He will "solicit ideas from members of the labor, manufacturing, and small business communities," the White House said.

Obama last week detailed a plan to use some of the remaining Troubled Asset Relief Program funds to stimulate economic growth and job creation.

He asked Congress to create incentives for homeowners who make their property more energy efficient.

Late Update: Obama on Monday is meeting with "members of the financial industry to discuss economic recovery, small business lending, improving lending practices for homeowners and the administration's plans for financial reform," the White House said. He'll also give a brief statement to the press.

On Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden is holding a Middle Class Task Force meeting on the future of manufacturing, the White House said.

White House

Obama Briefing Bipartisan Congressional Leaders On His Latest Economic Plan

Christina Bellantoni | December 9, 2009, 9:01AM

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Before heading to Oslo to scoop up his Nobel Peace Prize, President Obama will talk to members of Congress about jobs, jobs, jobs.

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will huddle in the Cabinet Room with key lawmakers to outline "next steps for growing the economy and creating jobs."

Yesterday Obama detailed ways to spend some of the leftover TARP funds to stimulate the economy and create jobs.

He said the money would go to small businesses, for infrastructure investment to improve highways, bridges and airports and a new rebate for homeowners dubbed "cash for caulkers" to reward people who retrofit their homes to be more energy efficient.

Obama's economic adviser Christina Romer told reporters yesterday that jobs is the constant refrain at the White House.

"The president asks us nearly every day are we doing enough on jobs," she said.

The White House's list of today's expected attendees after the jump.

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