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Current DateTime: 05:20:28 06 Feb 2009
LinksList Documentid: 24355697

Current DateTime: 01:02:09 06 Feb 2009
LinksList Documentid: 24890560
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Congressional Democrats Recasting TARP In A Big Way
By: Albert Bozzo, Senior Features Editor | 09 Jan 2009 | 04:18 PM ET
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TARP as we know it is dead. Now get ready for TARP 2.

Congressional Democrats have been busy drafting new legislation for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout fund—redirecting its bounty to Main Street, not Wall Street—even though President-elect Obama has outlined a sweeping $800 billion stimulus package that covers some of the same needs.
CNBC.com

House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D. Mass) Friday outlined his plans for new legislation, making public some of what was contained in a memo to House members earlier this week, a copy of which was obtained by CNBC.com.

Frank made clear Congress's disapproval of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's conception and execution of the emergency funding plan, its determined opposition to a new Paulson request for funds and, most importantly, six “new conditions that would govern the spending of the remaining $350 billion and that we bring forward a bill….”

In a news conference, Frank said there has been "such unhappiness" over how the original plan was handled but that there was a "need" for a second round. He said legislation would be introduced later today and hoped for a vote on it next week.

Though it is arguably open to interpretation as to whether the Frank plan is intended to be complimentary and supplemental to the Obama plan or essentially a stand-alone component of it, it still raises a number of critical questions.

Video: Barney Frank talks to CNBC about the new TARP bill.

Are Democrats over-doing it, in essence suggesting $1.15 trillion, not $800 billion, in new governemnt spending be thrown at the economy? Should the TARP fund be dropped altogether given the change in economic conditions and its intended focus? And are there significant differences in strategy already emerging between Congress and the President-elect?

Though Frank did not tick through all the of the plan's components in his news conference, the six measures include “substantial efforts to reduce mortgage foreclosures”, funding for “mortgages at low or affordable rates”, assistance to municipalities and other tax-exempt issuers, as well as help for auto dealers. TARP 2 also sets tougher new terms on banks receiving money from the fund, from lending requirements to executive compensation to disclosure.

President-elect Obama’s economic plan announced Thursday includes some of those economic aid issues, as well as conventional fiscal stimulus measures and broader economic initiaives. His economic team is now working on an overhaul of the TARP as well.

“If this is the direction the new Treasury wants to go, then it makes more sense to cancel the remaining $350 billion and have the debate as part of the stimulus bill,” says Robert Glauber, who oversaw the Treasury’s handling of the savings-and-loan crisis for the first Bush administration.

“Everyone is expecting the money to be spent. They’re certainly going to do it,” says a disapproving Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste. who predicts TARP 2 will become law before the stimulus package, partly because it contains previously approved money for the auto makers. “The question is how they do it? Will they eliminate some duplication? That should have some effect on what should happen in the stimulus.”

Schatz and others may disapprove of the strategy, but they are resigned to its inevitability. Others, however, are not so accepting.

“The TARP was a bad idea and I don’t there’s any reason to expand it or extend it, “ says former FDIC Chairman Bill Isaac, who is among those who strongly disapproved of using the funds for auto aid. “It’s irrelevant going forward. It creates a slush fund. I think that’s really dangerous.”

Some also see it as early sign of an emerging battle between Congress and the President-elect, who appear to have very different ideas about what is best for the crisis.

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