While conservative critics of traditional welfare payments to single mothers have bitterly complained about the flow of federal money to the "undeserving poor," the checks, loan guarantees and other subsidies flying out the door of the Treasury, Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation dwarf the
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program -- a.k.a welfare for poor people -- which, by the standards of AIG and Citicorp, get chump change: $23.2 billion this year.
The new Corporate Welfare - including the
Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP);
the Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP);
FDIC Temporary Liquidity Guarantees (TLG); the
Targeted
Investment Program (TIP); the
Term Asset-Backed Securities Lending Facility (TALF) etc., etc. -- goes to corporations that are principal players in the financial practices that contributed to the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. These corporations
include -- but are by no means limited to -- Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, AIG, Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Sun Trust, State Street, U.S. Bancorp, PNC Financial Services, Capital One Financial Corp, American Express, Chase Home Finance, Countrywide, and GMAC Mortgage.
The administration is acutely aware of the political liabilities of its bailout policies. On April 14,
in a speech at Georgetown University, Obama sought to provide a detailed defense of massive government expenditures to rescue failing American businesses. In that speech, the president addressed three of the most controversial issues in the bailout:
1. The $700 billion Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP), probably the most heavily criticized program:
Barack Obama: King Of Corporate Welfare | The Huffington Post