Obama Says TARP Funds Can Go Toward Cutting Deficit, Creating Jobs
EmailABC News’ Karen Travers and Sunlen Miller report:
President Obama said today that while the federal bailout program for financial institutions turned out to be “much cheaper than we expected,” it is still “not cheap and he suggested that some of the savings could be put toward programs to stimulate job creation.
The Obama administration anticipates that the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) will cost taxpayers $200 billion less than the $341 billion estimate that it projected in August.
Obama today that some of the repaid money and cost savings from the $700 bill TARP funds could be “devoted to deficit reduction” or put toward small businesses to stimulate job growth.
“It means that some of that money devoted, can be devoted to deficit reduction and the question is, are there selective approaches that are consistent with the original goals of TARP,” Obama said after a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Those “selective approaches” could be focused on job creation, but the president did not answer a question on whether he supported using the bailout money specifically to fund job creation programs,
Obama said he will address ways to stimulate growth in his economic speech in Washington tomorrow.
“The fact that having gotten the financial crisis under control, having finally moved in the positive territory when it comes to economic growth, our biggest challenge now is making sure that job growth matches up with economic growth,” Obama said.
Obama said he will address the issue of making sure small businesses are still lending, in order to accelerate job growth.
“Although we stabilized the financial system one of the problems that we’re still seeing all the time, and I heard about it when I was in Allentown just this past week, is the fact that small businesses and some medium sized businesses are still feeling the huge credit crunch,” the president said. “They cannot get the loans they need to make capital adjustments that would allow them to expand employment. And so that’s a particular area where we might be able to make a difference.”
-Karen Travers and Sunlen Miller
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Has this president already forgotten that there is something is this country known as the “legislative process”? Laws would have to be re-written before any TARP money could be used to cut the deficit or for any jobs programs.
Posted by: Mike in Costa Mesa | December 7, 2009, 5:14 pm 5:14 pm
Wasn’t that what the Stimulus was for, job creation?
SSDD
Posted by: Illinois Voter | December 7, 2009, 5:40 pm 5:40 pm
“…devoted to deficit reduction”
In other words… DON’T SPEND IT!
Posted by: den | December 7, 2009, 6:03 pm 6:03 pm
Hey Obama, how about putting my portion of the money that you used without asking, towards the deficit that you have increased. I don’t want my children and grandchildren paying for your ego!
Posted by: nskipper | December 7, 2009, 6:32 pm 6:32 pm
Obama in not a dictator (unless I missed an executive order). How can he just decide that funds allocated to a particular program, TARP, can now be redirected to any Obama pet project or other areas? Anyone reckon these funds will-somehow- find themselves in the hands of Obama-affiliated community “organizing” groups, charities run by Obama fundraisers, or to State in which corruption or Obama support is strong?
ps: TARP was started by Bush and from the get go has been questionable with lacking oversight, money to going to certain banks, etc. Why can’t Obama do the “change” he promised and eliminate the Bush spending spree finally?
Posted by: Ed | December 7, 2009, 8:01 pm 8:01 pm
Funny stuff. TARP is taxpayer debt. You don’t “cut the deficit” by spending money you don’t have. Duh.
Posted by: Mary | December 7, 2009, 8:25 pm 8:25 pm
What was the Stimulus for?Where are the jobs that it was supposed to create?Better get Sheriff Biden to round up a posse to see if he can find them.Those crazy Commie Democrats are at it again.
Posted by: Johnny L | December 7, 2009, 8:48 pm 8:48 pm
Funny stuff. TARP is taxpayer debt. You don’t “cut the deficit” by spending money you don’t have. Duh.
_________________________________
Yes you do. If you have borrowed money earmarked for some project and you decide instead to pay some of it back, you are in fact cutting your deficit. Too complicated for you?
Posted by: tierra | December 7, 2009, 9:25 pm 9:25 pm
Obama, just STOP PRINTING AND SPENDING CITIZEN’S TAXES. MOST AMERICAN DOESN’T WANT YOU TO SPEND US$100,000,000.00 TO SUPPORT “ABORTION” ALL OF THE WORLD.
Posted by: Stop spending huge mny for "ABORTION" | December 7, 2009, 9:36 pm 9:36 pm
This is all a second stimulus because the first one didn’t work.
He can dress it up as a side step on the money otherwise earmarked for some other destination and shuffle it to this fantasy of a jobs creation program but the fact is, this administration and this President force fed us a Stimulus plan that simply didn’t work.
So – let’s talk about the results of the Stimulus Bill. You might remember it – this is that $800 Billion dollar spending bill that this President forced on us because ‘we were at the brink’ yada yada yada. It hasn’t produced results – period. It will never produce results because – here is the point – it was never designed to produce results because it is an approbations bill pure and simple.
Now let’s not get confused here – TARP is not to be confused with the Stimulus plan. The idea of the Stimulus plan was to ‘save hundreds of thousands of jobs’ and stimulate the economy. TARP was money that Treasury used to get liquidity back in banks. TARP is being repaid, the Stimulus plan will never be repaid. Now this administration wants to take the unused TARP funds and repaid funds and throw it after that which will never be repaid and based on the use of this money already won’t produce any results.
Posted by: Lone Star Rules | December 7, 2009, 11:01 pm 11:01 pm
It hasn’t produced results – period.
___________________________________
How would you know?
Posted by: tierra | December 8, 2009, 12:33 am 12:33 am
How would you know?
___________________
Step up, show us some. Last time the Administration stepped up and tried to make their case turns out they made up the numbers. Then they tried to make a claim that they saved a boatload of jobs in one district but, turns out the jobs were never at risk.
We have spend roughly a 1/3 of the package. Show us the results.
Good luck with that – the Obama administration has been trying to make this case for the past 45 days and got caught fudging the numbers.
And, by the way, if the Stimulus plan had real results (again, we are talking jobs) then we wouldn’t be having Jobs Summits, a big job initiative speech tonight by the President and a Second stimulus (under the guise of redirecting TARP funds to create jobs). The very fact that we are here is an admission that the Stimulus has not produced.
Think of me as the Jerry Maguire of the Stimulus Plan: “show me the results”
Posted by: Lone Star Rules | December 8, 2009, 7:43 am 7:43 am
In Philly, the AA radio show is asking all listeners to get trained in applying weather stripping to doors because Obama is going to give them money to teach people how to apply weather strippping. Part of the helping the AA community getting jobs.
Now, I’m a 50 yo woman who learned how to weather strip my door at home depot for free. It took less than 20 minutes to learn.
This is where our billions are going. A ruse to pay back the urban voters. A pay out. plain and simple.
This is so blatantly BS….
Posted by: mjishernameo | December 8, 2009, 8:03 am 8:03 am
President Obama said today that while the federal bailout program for financial institutions turned out to be “much cheaper than we expected,” it is still “not cheap and he suggested that some of the savings could be put toward programs to stimulate job creation.
I thought that the Rush, Rush, 787
billion dollar Stimulus Package was
supposed to create jobs, Mr President!
Before you waste more of the
taxpayers money please try to find out
how jobs are created in this country.
Your “slash and burn” policy of
pitting “wall street” against
“main street” doesn’t seem to be
working. Wall street is the solution
not the problem!
Either get a clue or resign along with
Biden and Pelosi!
This should serve as a lesson for the
voters of this country.
Never vote for a presidential
candidate who has little more than
two years experience in the
U.S. Senate!
Posted by: reaganfan | December 8, 2009, 2:21 pm 2:21 pm
“If you have borrowed money earmarked for some project and you decide instead to pay some of it back, you are in fact cutting your deficit. Too complicated for you?”
Posted by: tierra | Dec 7, 2009 9:25:54 PM
“Paying it back” does not mean spending it on some other pork-barrel project (Stimulus II). The LAW requires unspent TARP money to go towards reducing the deficit, period. Too complicated for you?
Posted by: Redistribution Czar | December 8, 2009, 2:41 pm 2:41 pm
Serafina you miss the point and your facts are questionable.
First of all Reagan reduced taxes on
businesses and individuals and that
created millions of jobs and eased the
recession.
The reason Reagan had to increase defense spending was that President
Carter had been so inept that he
allowed the Shaw of Iran to be
overthrown by its current leaders and
they had taken hundreds of American
Embassy officials hostage!
The world had become a more hostile
place under Carter.
The 787 billion dollar stimulus bill
was not supposed to bail out state
and local governments it was supposed to
be used for “shovel ready” projects
that would put people back to work!
If less than half of the stimulus
money has been spent why do we need to
use the Tarp money to create jobs?
By the way Serafina I wouldn’t rely on
the New York Times or CBS News unless
you’re into Science Fiction!
Posted by: reaganfan | December 10, 2009, 4:47 pm 4:47 pm
It seems as if most comments on this site is geared towards supporting negative feedback on what President Obama and his “Positive Thinking Administration is working to accomplish.” Educated Americans
should reflect back a few years prior to Mr. Obama taking office–of how the economical situations in America derived to its present status. Let’s not forget how the Bush administration “pimped the American people out of major financial surpluses and economic stable with big Bank and Loan Institutes such as Well Forgo…they treated the American people like prostitutes.” (get the picture?) We now have a President ready to undo all the soc-economical problems the previous administration created by helping small businesses develop jobs, bring pride back to the American Workforce, but most of you…are crying wolf! Get real…we’re a strong nation, we will continue to show growth and stability with or without those that speak negative towards social reform.
Let President Obama do his job, and before criticize him—reach across party lines and help put this great country the United States of America, back on track of economical recovery, before we all become employees of third world employers.
Posted by: DANIEL X BRACK | December 23, 2009, 6:50 pm 6:50 pm