The federal government spent $700 billion to bailout the financial sector last year in the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. But is that all the spending? No, says TARP Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky. The Washington Times reports, “The inspector general in charge of overseeing the Treasury Department’s bank-bailout program says the massive endeavor could end up costing taxpayers almost $24 trillion in a worst-case scenario. That’s more than six times President Obama’s proposed $3.55 trillion budget for 2010.”
Barofsky said, “TARP does not function in a vacuum, but is rather part of the broader government efforts to stabilize the financial system.” Costs include $7.4 trillion for TARP and other Treasury aid, $2.3 trillion for programs backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), as well as $7.2 trillion for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, credit unions and other programs. Needless to say, the price tag is astounding. As Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) put it, “If you spent a million dollars a day going back to the birth of Christ, that wouldn’t even come close to just $1 trillion; $23.7 trillion is a staggering figure.”
The Treasury Department disputes Barofsky’s estimate, saying that, so far, less than $2 trillion has been dispersed for all the programs named in the report, including $441 billion from TARP, although $643 billion has been committed. Barofsky says that not only is spending out of control, but “almost certainly we are going to be seeing a number of [criminal] indictments” coming from 35 investigations authorized by the inspector general’s office. According to the Times, “These investigations include suspected accounting fraud, securities fraud, insider trading, mortgage-service misconduct, mortgage fraud, public corruption, false statements and tax investigations.” That’s what happens when a tax evader runs the Treasury, but one might also say that, in this case, the phrase “we blame George Bush” actually holds some water.
