TARP

"Use Wall Street bailout money to pay down national debt"

February 24, 2010 -- (WASHINGTON, D.C.) -- Senator Jon Tester is calling on Congress to send repaid and unused money from the bailout of Wall Street to pay down the national debt.

Tester is urging his colleagues on the Senate Budget Committee to include the bipartisan Pay it Back Act as it prepares next year’s budget.

Tester is a cosponsor of the Pay it Back Act, which would:

* Capture repaid Wall Street bailout funds and applies those funds for deficit reduction.
* Require returned investments from the sale of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stock or securities to be used for deficit reduction.
* Reduce the national debt limit dollar-for-dollar as the bailout money is returned.    » read more »

Bipartisan ‘Pay It Back’ Plan Would Ensure Returned Bank, Housing Emergency Spending Is Used to Pay Down Debt, Not Fund Further Spending

February 24, 2010 -- Washington, DC - With the U.S. Senate expected to take up the Budget for the upcoming fiscal year in the next few weeks, Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO), Bob Corker (R-TN) and Jon Tester (D-MT) are telling Senate budget leaders to ensure funds repaid by beneficiaries of taxpayer-funded emergency spending are used to pay down the debt, not fund further deficit spending.    » read more »

FY2011 Request: $13.935 billion; FY2010 Enacted: $13.554 billion

The Department of the Treasury is a leader in the President’s efforts to promote the economic prosperity and financial security of the United States. Treasury operations are critical to the core functions of government, including collecting more than $2.3 trillion in revenue and disbursing more than $2.3 trillion in payments, managing Federal finances, and protecting the financial system from threats. Treasury also plays a key role in modernizing the American financial regulatory framework and ensuring effective, transparent administration of programs designed to strengthen the economy.

Expand Tools for Economic and Community Development    » read more »

Treasury Budget Focused on Building New Foundation for Economic Growth, Reform of the Financial System; Projected TARP Costs Down $224 Billion from August Mid-Session Review

February 1, 2010 -- WASHINGTON – As a part of the Administration's commitment to making tough choices and streamlining programs that work in order to lay the foundation for long-term economic growth, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner today highlighted key components of the President's FY 2011 Budget intended to continue our nation down the path to economic prosperity.    » read more »

Legislation Uses Existing TARP Funds To Put Around 15,000 Minnesotans To Work

Washington, D.C. [Jan 26, 2010] – Today, U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) introduced his plan to put around 15,000 Minnesotans back to work. The “Strengthening Our Economy Through Employment and Development (SEED) Act,” informally known as “Cash for Jobs,” would take $10 billion in existing funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and re-allocate it to creating jobs in the private and public sectors. This means the initiative would create jobs without adding to the national debt or deficit.    » read more »

"Hard-working Americans will not be ATMs for Wall Street" January 19, 2010 -- Just a year ago, Wall Street banks pleaded for taxpayers to bail them out to save us all from financial disaster. We did. So now that banks and securities firms are on their feet again, what's their response? A record $145 billion in executive bonuses for 2009—a year when more than four million Americans lost their jobs, largely because of the actions of these very institutions. That is simply unacceptable.

Hard-working Americans will not be ATMs for Wall Street. Today the AFL-CIO demands that Wall Street stop bankrupting America.    » read more »

January 20, 2010 -- The US Department of the Treasury today released a TARP Warrant Disposition Report. This report provides an overview of the warrants received by Treasury under the Capital Purchase Program (CPP) of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) as of December 31, 2009 and an explanation of the warrant disposition process and the results achieved on behalf of taxpayers.

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) requires that Treasury receive warrants in connection with the purchase of troubled assets.

A major part of the TARP was the CPP. It was created in October 2008 to stabilize the financial system by providing capital to viable banks of all sizes nationwide. Under this program, Treasury invested $205 billion in 707 banks.    » read more »

Senator among bipartisan group of senators pushing to end TARP, lower debt

January 21, 2010 -- (WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Senator Jon Tester today cosponsored and voted for a measure to immediately end the recent multibillion dollar bailout of Wall Street.

Tester voted against the $700 billion bailout of America’s financial industry, formally known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), in October of 2008. He said the plan—proposed by President Bush—wasn’t “tough enough to protect American taxpayers and small businesses.”

Tester is the only Senate Democrat to vote against both the Wall Street bailout and the bailout of the U.S. auto industry several months later.    » read more »

Calls On Goldman Sachs To Reconsider Huge Bonuses After Taking Billions In Taxpayer Assistance; Menendez urges more emphasis on program to increase small business lending

January 22, 2010 -- WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), a member of the Banking Committee, is calling on Goldman Sachs to reconsider its huge 2009 bonus payouts after the firm stayed afloat on billions of taxpayer dollars.

Yesterday, Goldman Sachs announced $16.2 billion in bonuses and compensation in 2009, which amounts to a more than 50 percent increase over the $10.7 billion committed to bonuses and compensation in 2008. Meanwhile, the firm has received at least $24 billion in taxpayer assistance.    » read more »

January 22, 2010 -- “A chief responsibility of the Chairman of the Federal Reserve is to ensure a sound financial system. Under the watch of Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve permitted grossly irresponsible financial activities that led to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

"Under Chairman Bernanke’s watch predatory mortgage lending flourished, and ‘too big to fail’ financial giants were permitted to engage in activities that put our nation’s economy at risk.

"And as it responds to the crisis it helped to usher in, the Federal Reserve under Chairman Bernanke’s leadership continues to resist appropriate efforts to review that response, how taxpayers’ money was being used, and whether it acted appropriately.    » read more »

Effort to Cancel TARP, Which is Also a Provision of Feingold's Control Spending Now Act, Fails Senate

January 21, 2010 -- Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Russ Feingold expressed disappointment today after the Senate voted against ending the Wall Street bailout. Feingold cosponsored an amendment offered by Senator John Thune (R-SD) to cancel the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), also known as the Wall Street bailout.

Feingold opposed the Wall Street bailout in late 2008 and has proposed canceling it as part of his Control Spending Now Act, legislation made up of more than forty provisions to cut the deficit by about one half trillion dollars. Feingold estimates cancelling the bailout could save taxpayers $244.5 billion.    » read more »

Measure would have barred Treasury from releasing further funds

January 21, 2010 -- U.S. Senator Mark Begich today joined Republicans and Democrats in an effort to end the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Begich voted for an amendment from Sen. John Thune (R - South Dakota) that would have barred the Treasury Department from releasing any remaining funds from the $700 billion bailout of banks, automakers and financial firms formulated under the Bush Administration.

The amendment to a bill that would raise the debt ceiling to $14.3 trillion required 60 votes to pass. It failed by a vote of 53 to 45. Begich was one of 12 Democrats who supported the amendment, which would have mandated all returned TARP funds be used to lower the national debt.    » read more »

January 20, 2010 -- WASHINGTON – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said today he senses growing opposition to a second term for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

“I sense that many Democrats see the Massachusetts election as a wake-up call,” Sanders said. “There is a growing understanding that our economy is in severe distress, a greater appreciation that people are disgusted with the never-ending greed on Wall Street, and a better recognition that we need a new direction at the Fed.    » read more »

Net Loss of $194 Million in Fourth Quarter

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Jan. 20-- Bank of America Corporation today reported full-year 2009 net income of $6.3 billion, compared with net income of $4.0 billion in 2008. Including preferred stock dividends and the negative impact from the repayment of the U.S. government's $45 billion preferred stock investment in the company under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), income applicable to common shareholders was a net loss of $2.2 billion, or $0.29 per diluted share.

Those results compared with 2008 net income applicable to common shareholders of $2.6 billion, or $0.54 per diluted share.    » read more »

Citigroup Reports 2009 Full Year Managed Revenues1 of $91.1 Billion and Expenses of $47.8 Billion

January 19, 2010 -- Fourth Quarter Net Loss of $7.6 Billion ($0.33 Per Share); $1.4 Billion ($0.06 Per Share) Excluding The Impact of Tarp Repayment and Exit of Loss-Sharing Agreement

New York – Citigroup today reported a full year 2009 net loss of $1.6 billion, or $0.80 per share. Managed revenues were $91.1 billion for the year. The fourth quarter 2009 net loss was $7.6 billion, or $0.33 per share. Excluding the $6.2 billion after-tax loss associated with TARP repayment and exiting the loss-sharing agreement, the fourth quarter net loss was $1.4 billion or $0.06 per share.    » read more »