'World News' Political Insights: No TARP Bounce Coming for Democrats
Successes aside, bailouts remain political losers for both parties.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3, 2010— -- The fact that the Troubled Asset Relief Program is ending with a net loss to taxpayers of only $50 billion or less is good news for taxpayers.
But it's not likely to be good news for the politicians who supported the program in the first place -- and who have been defending their votes for the better part of two years.
TARP may have prevented a financial collapse. It remains, however, one of the least popular government programs to have been enacted in recent years.
Nothing that comes out about it in the final month of the campaign appears likely to change perceptions in a way that would help politicians of either party who supported it.
In a testament to successful political branding, Republicans have succeeded in linking the TARP to bailouts of the auto industry and even the much-maligned stimulus bill.
In public perception, they stand together as examples of government excess that haven't helped the average taxpayer. And politically -- though it's not entirely fair -- they belong to President Obama and his fellow Democrats in Congress.
One recent poll found that 45 percent of voters believe TARP made the economy worse, with only 18 percent giving it credit for making things better.
Another poll found that more voters believe -- wrongly -- that it was the brainchild of the Obama White House than who think -- correctly -- that it was a policy of George W. Bush.
TARP continues to haunt politicians with as diverse ideologies as Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, who lost a Senate primary in part because of his vote, and Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., who's running for Senate against a conservative Republican, Pat Toomey.
Politicians of both parties, of course, supported TARP, and the blowback has been -- and will continue to be -- bipartisan. But as with so much else, since Democrats are the party in power in Washington, they will suffer disproportionately from perceptions of government excess.
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