Bush shuffles the bailout money.

WASHINGTON - Publicly breaking with the Bush administration's official stance, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. proposed Friday to use $24 billion in government funding to help 1.5 million American households avoid foreclosure.

Where to find that money, though, is in dispute. FDIC officials want to use part of the $700 billion bailout of the financial industry to pay for it. But the Treasury Department is opposed to that idea.

Testifying on Capitol Hill Friday, Neel Kashkari, the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for financial stability, said the aim of the $700 billion plan was to make investments with the hope of getting the money back. That he said, was "fundamentally different from just having a government spending program" that would disburse money with no chance of ever seeing any returns.


With the Bush administration adamantly opposed, Congressional Democrats could take up the FDIC's plan when they return for a lame-duck session next week. Or the plan could set the stage for a new foreclosure prevention initiative once President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January.

At Friday's hearing, lawmakers complained that the Bush administration is ignoring the will of Congress and slighting homeowners on the verge of foreclosure in its latest approach to spend $700 billion in economic rescue money.

Congressional dissatisfaction is especially significant because Congress can block the release of the second half of the money, $350 billion, or put new conditions on its use. Democrats are pushing for funds to help the auto industry and distressed homeowners alike.

There is intense speculation in Washington that the FDIC's chairman, Sheila Bair, is positioning herself for a role in the Obama administration. "My assumption is that she's angling for a promotion," said Bert Ely, a banking industry consultant in Alexandria, Va. and an FDIC critic.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27719909/

[plantsman]

Read this twice, and don't see how you conjured up the title to this post. What'd I miss?

[img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif[/img] Sometimes I wonder if anybody ever reads these. It is changed, the bailout, but it looks like the different groups are in a power struggle. Just shopping for an opinion.

[plantsman]

Agreed. I t amazes me that our elected officials can fly into DC, come up with a plan to save our economy, even set a dollar amount on it. Now they're debating how to spend it? Come on, if the $750 billion is legitimate, whouldn't they have devised a plan as to how it should be spent? It now seems they went, came up with an exorbitant figure, said let's let the citizenry buy on, then we'll decide how to spend it (i.e., special interests). The whole lot of them should be hauled out and stoned.

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: boney</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Agreed. I t amazes me that our elected officials can fly into DC, come up with a plan to save our economy, even set a dollar amount on it. Now they're debating how to spend it? Come on, if the $750 billion is legitimate, whouldn't they have devised a plan as to how it should be spent? It now seems they went, came up with an exorbitant figure, said let's let the citizenry buy on, then we'll decide how to spend it (i.e., special interests). The whole lot of them should be hauled out and stoned. </div></div>

They have a plan, Boney. The folks in charge are gonna carry off as much as they can, send some thier cronies way, and let us worry about the bills we had to start with and paying the 700 billion back. The man said change [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif[/img] I'm thinking some "change" is as good as normal people will do.

[curveball08]

This is a reason why I hate big government. The government is the most unorganized and corrupt instituion that ever existed. I like Churchill's quote "Democrocy is the worst form of government next to all other forms of government." I think most of us have no choice but to agree.