The Conservative Missionary vs. The Libertarian Missionary

[maxiep]

Definitely a huge amount in normal human terms, but not a big percentage of the overall federal budget.

barfo

As Sen. Everett Dirkson once said, "A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you're talking about real money."

I don't care about overall percentages, I care about reducing the size of the Federal Budget, especially since we're borrowing 41 cents on the dollar.

 

[Denny Crane]

Well, half of it they raised by selling stock in April 2009. Presumably the rest they had on hand.

barfo

Presumably, they didn't need TARP money then.

 

[maxiep]

Presumably, they didn't need TARP money then.

Many firms that didn't need TARP money were forced to take it, so as not to color those who did as insolvent. Goldman needed TARP money; their MBS book was disasterous. BTW, the hoops those banks went through to pay the money back--even when they had it--is another story. They wanted to pay the money back, but the government kept creating new rules to keep the TARP money out there. After all, when you have TARP money, the government has you by the short and curlies.