Giving Back the TARP Money: Three Banks Pull a ‘Sarah Palin’

The TARP funds are for those institutions that are in dire straits; if you didn’t need the money, you did the right thing by returning it. Let’s hope that others, who also don’t need the additional funding, do the responsible thing by returning our hard-earned tax dollars to the treasury.

This is good news. Obama’s firing of exectives on the taxpayers’ dole SHOULD be a litmus test for banks that really need the help and are willing to forgo bonuses to get it , verses banks who are just taking advantage of a good thing by taking the extra money. I hope that more financial companies find that they can do just fine on their own.

banks return or refusing TARP means that a) the problem isn’t that big for them b) corporate greed was the cry for a bailout and now corporate greed is the cry to return the bailout money c) all of the above
Any why not fire those responsible for getting their corproation into the state they need a bailout. If I screwed up at my job I would be out the door next week. But if you got a golden parachute its okay to stay??

This has more to do with the knee jerk reactions of congress and their attemps to “punish” their idea of wrong doers that anything else. Oh, and neo-cons using Palin as and example, remember that she took 2/3′s of the money, she only refused money geared toward eduction in Alaska, after all, Sarah prefers them stupid and pliable like most republicans.

If paying their executives millions of dollars a year is more important than putting their financial affairs straight, then they either didn’t need the money or don’t deserve it. Obama is right to establish strict limits on financial institutions in return for assistance. After all, the Federal government imposes income restrictions on ALL recipients of public assistance. Why should a banker on TARP welfare be any different from a mother on a Welfare-to-Work program?

There’s a saying, you live by the grant you die by the grant. That means get govt money and when it runs out you die.
Okay, so they gave the money back because they don’t want to be regulated — GOOD! they’re probably profitable anyway and didn’t need it in the first place. Nothing wrong with that.

The idea of the TARP was to stop a bank from failing. If a bank feels they can make it without taking the money because they didn’t want to deal with the conditions then maybe they didn’t need the money to begin with. Funny thing about the Neo-Cons is they complain about the money going out and then complain if the money isn’t taken. Just proves their only goal is to complain. It’s our money and I’d be really ticked off if it was released without strings attached and rules of the road. The Obama Administration is doing an excellent job regardless of the drumbeat of negativism from radio talk shows being regurgitated on blogs by lemmings.

I am so happy to hear them say no thanks.

Keeping the executives from getting such high million dollar salaries they don’t like that – so they have to give the money back. Please give the money back all you rich greedy bankers who can’t cut your pay so other employees can keep their jobs. That is just too much to expect of the rich and greedy republicans who are so selfish.

If only they were returning the money because they didn’t need it. They are returning it so they can get thier “MILLION” dollar bonus’s and then say they don’t have money to lend to Americans. Get real I’m not fooled. But most of you easily duped individuals wouldn’t be able to see that.

Any chance this going back to the taxpayers… NAH!!!

These and other who received TARP funds did not really need the money in the first place. What happened to the interest that was supposed to be added to the borrowed monies and returned to the tax payers? The bail out was a joke. They took the money so that they could buy other banks and use it as investments for expansion or buying good assets and when they found out that there will be accountability and the salaries and bonuses will become public, it send a shiver up their spine. Obama administration has called their bluff. Everyone receiving government monies and loans were so used to lack of oversight, slack regulation and absolutely no accountability that when they found out that the bail out may not be a blank check they are trembling in their shoes. The entire bail out will go down in history as a government authorized Ponzi scheme that was shoved down the tax payer’s throats using scare tactics and terms like too big to fail and financial disasters and worse depression since the great depression. The chips should have fallen where they could without the bail out and did anyway. America would have emerged with less deficit and with the irresponsible speculators from wall street sunk in the Hudson. I think the administration by asking the GM CEO to resign has truly set an example that the era of free money with no strings from the government is over. Either shapeup or shipout. The message is loud and clear capitalism that rewards incompetence, mismanagement and looting from your own company is over. No CEO who has not founded the company or does not own the company deserves a cash salary and bonus combined of more than $1 million. The rest comes in stock options. No private jets and no more conventions at expensive resorts. Decrease your operating costs and become productive and generate products that are truly of high quality and meets the demands of the American tax payers.

Great for them and America.

Sarah Palin did not return the money for the bridge to nowhere just made a nice talking point to the mesmerized partisan crowd. She diverted it to her pet projects. Wink Wink. You Betch ya. Even the recent refusal of stimulus money was ultimately kept. She was trying to follow the example of governor from South Carolina and say leave the money at my door step and don’t tell me how to use it and I will use it not for the intended purpose but for whatever I want to do with it. hocus pocus politicians trying to deceive the gullible people and some people fall for it just likes the WMDs and the hunt for Bin laden and lobbyists will have no place in my administration.

The banks just don’t get it – it is over for them the free market is done for them. These greedy CEO will be watched from here on.

I work for a bank and I want people to make alot of money if they company excels. I want my children to know if they work hard get an education that they too can make millions. Do we want them to think, Hey work, dont work, either way the govt will take care of you. Give people an incentive to work hard. We have enough lazy leaches.

So let’s see . . .
Pullin-a-Palin™ = Giving back welfare money you don’t need.
What a nobel thing.
It’s good of you, ABC News, to coin that phrase. It shows that perhaps you aren’t that biased/liberal after all.
Now how are we all going to fill in the following?
Oh-No-Obama™ = ________________.

I find it hard to believe some of the post to this story. The banks are giving money back because they want to give executives big bonuses. Some may deserve it, but what disturb me most about the banks that is returning the money is they did not need it in the first place. Some post suggest good for the bank that gave money back because government is to big PLEASE!! They gave it back after rules were put in place. They wanted it both ways and I think it was abuse of the system to take the money in the first place if it was not needed.

I can see your point, Unity.
It appears that the banks were playing it both ways. However, I would like more info on this.
Sometimes things are forced on people before they can really evaluate the situation.
Did they really have the money in their hands or was it in the process?
These banks probably could have gotten around these stipulations, but they gave the money back anyway.
Again, maybe the ‘free’ money was just too expensive in the long run.