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Obama Looks To Leftover TARP Fund To Create New Jobs Bill
President Obama is looking to use bailout money that banks are returning to the government to help tackle two of the nation’s biggest problems — unemployment and the budget deficit.
As he prepared to unveil job creation ideas in a major economic speech today, Obama said he was considering tapping the $700-billion Troubled Asset Relief Program to pay for some of them. Additional money flowing back into TARP, leading to new projections lowering the fund’s long-term cost, would help reduce the ballooning deficit.
The controversial bailout fund “has turned out to be much cheaper than we expected, although not cheap,” Obama said Monday.
In a report to be sent to Congress this week, the Treasury Department estimates losses from TARP to be no more than $141 billion over the next decade. That compares with the administration’s projection in August of $341 billion in losses.
Major banks are returning the bulk of the money given them more quickly than anticipated. Bank of America Corp. said last week that it won federal approval to return $45 billion it had received, raising to $116 billion the amount expected this year from banks.
“It means that some of that money can . . . be devoted to deficit reduction,” Obama said. “And the question is, are there selective approaches that are consistent with the original goals of TARP — for example, making sure that small businesses are still getting lending — that would be appropriate in accelerating job growth?”
FOR CONTINUATION OF THIS STORY, CLICK THIS LINK FOR THE L.A. TIMES: Improved TARP forecast could mean $200 billion to help create jobs — latimes.com.
