Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Garrett on AIG

Representative Scott Garrett has had a number of good quotes printed today regarding the AIG mess. Here's a sampling:

From the Associated Press:
"Part of me wants to say to some of the loudest critics, 'What did you expect and why weren't you asking more questions before?' I would argue that the real outrage now is the $170 billion of taxpayer money that's been pumped into this company and to what effect," he said.

From Voice of America:
"Why didn't [Treasury] Secretary [Timothy] Geithner raise this issue just last week with the president when we knew he was briefed in detail about the bonuses from the CEO of AIG? What about the fact that the Fed [i.e., Federal Reserve, the nation's central bank] and the administration still have not outlined an exit strategy from this whole situation? "

The problem here is that Republicans are doing a little bit of revisionist history when it comes to TARP. Garrett, to his credit, was against all the bailouts all of the time.

However, I keep seeing Republicans doing their best to make it seem like it wasn't President Bush who started this whole thing. Or the fact after the House defeated the first bailout, it caved a few days later.

Unfortunately, both parties are guilty of creating this mess. The contracts were known about since before TARP I, and we still gave them money. This is a bi-partisan mess, and it doesn't do the nation any good for the Republicans to be dancing around while the nation burns.

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