Monday, December 22, 2008

I Want Receipts!

Earlier today the Associated Press reported that,
“After receiving billions in aid from U.S. taxpayers, the nation's largest banks say they can't track exactly how they're spending it. Some won't even talk about it.”
The AP actually contacted twenty-one banks that received at least $1 billion and none could specify how they had spent it and for what! Yet a single mother who suffers a medical calamity and is forced to declare bankruptcy will have to endure an excruciating accounting process. Indeed, it is banks who lobbied Washington to make it damn near possible for such a person to satisfactorily itemize their assets and liabilities in order to qualify for bankruptcy.

Yet our political culture which is conditioned to excoriate that single mom for not pulling herself up by her boot straps will likely give the banks a pass. Meanwhile, small business owners are struggling to make their payrolls, as banks remain tight fisted with credit and jobs disappear.

I want receipts from these people! If the TARP funds are not properly allocated to minimize job losses Americans are entitled to know. And if it turns out the banks are stealing then the Obama Justice Department should make an example of them.

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