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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

What Happened to All the Bailout Money?

Back last September when it was revealed our mortgage industry was experiencing a meltdown, the Bush administration under the direction of then Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson approved of using TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program) money to help bailout those banks that were going under. AIG (American International Group) received bailout money last fall and spent it on a cruise. This past Spring during the Obama administration under Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, AIG was approved of another loan worth $30 billion and they spent that money paying their executives around $165 million in bonuses. President Obama as well as Congressional members such as House Banking Chairman Barney Frank were complaining of AIG paying their executives bonuses with taxpayer money.

Who's at fault? Both parties are. The government was at fault for granting another bailout to AIG. AIG was at fault for taking taxpayer money to pay their executives those hefty bonuses. I don't have an issue with a corporation paying their executives bonuses as long as it's done with the company's money--not taxpayer dollars. The government's at fault for granting another loan to AIG simply because AIG squandered the first loan back last fall. If AIG is about ready to go into bankruptcy, then they need to use that money to keep their business afloat--not to put it into their pockets. There's no accountability. Actually the Federal Reserve is responsible for handing out the money to these troubled banks. The Federal Reserve needs to be audited by our Congress.

The question that needs to be asked is how is all this bailout money being used? Where's it going once the corporation receives it? We don't know. Henry Paulson and now Timothy Geithner is handing all this TARP money to these troubled corporations but we don't know what's happened to it. The government is handing out our money to these corrupt corporations and we don't know as taxpayers how that money's being used. There's been rumors that much of the money that AIG has received has been used to pay off their creditors in other countries. There's been speculation that some of that money went to China. AIG is originally a Chinese company that started in Shanghai in 1919 and then moved some of it's business to New York in 1949.

The bailouts didn't stop with the troubled banks. We've given loans to both General Motors and Chrysler. There's media outlets that have requested bailout money. All this handing out the taxpayer's money to these troubled corporations must stop. We must hold our elected representatives accountable and find out where all this money's been going. Our government's given General Motors and Chrysler bailout money supposedly to help them avoid bankruptcy protection but they still filed for bankruptcy protection anyway. What was the benefit in sending them that money? How did GM and Chrysler use the money that was given to them? It didn't help keep their companies afloat.

What a waste of taxpayer money! The whole purpose of this I believe is to give the government foothold into the private sector. It's all about control. The government wants to control our economy and transform it into a command economy. President Obama has told these car companies to make vehicles which average so many miles per gallon as well as vehicles which aren't harmful to the environment. I agree that our automobiles need to achieve better fuel efficiency, but that's not an area for President Obama to put his nose into. That should be handled by the private sector. We need to hold our elected officials accountable that have supported all these bailouts and vote them out of office next November 2010.

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