Who's Bailout?

Yes, we are talking about the bailout again. This time I would like to examine the lingering effects of negative attention. Today Chris Good wrote about TARP, my new favorite topic. In Bailout Politics, Then and Now, Chris Good, a staff editor at TheAtlantic.com, noted some of the hardships our current political parties might face due to their support of TARP in 2008. TARP is more commonly known as the Wall Street Bailout, or the Big Bank Bailout but either way it was a program that designated $700 billion of taxpayer dollars to banks and Wall Street in an effort to stabilize the economy, or get them out of the mess they created. However you want to look at it, it does appear to have been a success, with the taxpayers making $25.5 billion according to the article.

What still remains unclear, now that TARP has ended, is why those who voted for it will now be punished. Good notes that according to Pew, those who voted for the bailout will be "less likely to receive support in the coming midterms" and that 47% of respondents to Pew reported that the bailout was passed under Obama's administration! It was not. That was Bush, and that should be a good thing. That should be an issue that the Republicrats could hold up on either side of the aisle and say "See! It worked and it was our idea!" Instead we seem to hear very little. How long has it been since we heard about what has been done and done well?

I guess it is safer to not bring up the issue, as opinions have been formed and the most attention this bailout gets is the amount of zero's coming off it's 7.

The Atlantic is a blog for those leaning to the Left and though intended for that audience, I think this could speak to the Right as well. Good notes that TARP is still as toxic as it ever was in some political circles and the original supporters are shy to speak of it as the Tea Partiers and the far right continue to oppose it. Maybe it is time to take a step back, and reassess what it is we truly want for our country.

   There is no more destructive force in human affairs -- not greed, not hatred -- than the desire to have been right. Non-attachment to possessions is of trivial value in comparison with non-attachment to opinions.
       -Mark Kleiman