Top 10 Financial TARP Recipients
As many Republican candidates call for scaling back "Big Government", few have acknowledged socialized welfare provided by the American tax payers kept America’s largest banks from going bankrupt. The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was signed into law not by a socialist President Obama, but by “free marketer” conservative Republican U.S. President George W. Bush on October 3, 2008.
The top ten private financial institutions were given over 248 Billion dollars, of a total $700 Billion dollar bail out package. This enormous tax payer welfare compares to the $80 Billion dollar expenditure in 2012 to pay for Food Stamps to support 47 million Americans living in poverty. Despite the obvious inequity in social vs. corporate support during the mortgage crisis, Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich recently labeled President Obama “the best food-stamp president in American history.”
Unfortunately Republican candidates exhibit a short memory about the enormous welfare a Republican President distributed during his final days in office. Such corporate welfare doesn’t seem to resonate since the billions of dollars were used to protect financial institutions making money on the speculative ‘expectations market’ than everyday people struggling to make a living in the ‘real market ’ where actual goods are produced.
SOURCES:
www.nytimes.com/packages/html/national/200904_CREDITCRISI...
articles.boston.com/2011-01-06/news/29335044_1_antipovert...
www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-22/gingrich-calling-oba...
money.cnn.com/2008/10/03/news/economy/house_friday_bailou...