With the guidance and help of Zachary Roth of TPM Media, I've begun unraveling the details of the newly released GAO report, which is assessing the TARP program (aka bailout).
Surprise, surprise, surprise...
WaPo reports:
The Bush administration has failed to adequately oversee its $700 billion financial bailout program and must move rapidly to guarantee that banks are complying with the plan's limits on conflicts of interest and lavish executive compensation, congressional investigators said yesterday.
More after the jump...
Worst of all, perhaps, is the fact that at least one Republican Senator is holding up the vote on an inspector general to oversee the program. Neil Barofsky has been tapped and approved by the Senate Banking Committee to lead the charge in accountability, but reports indicate that a GOP Senator has anonymously placed a hold on the vote.
Barofsky was nominated in mid-November to take the lead on oversight of the TARP program. A supporter of Barack Obama's campaign for president, Barofsky is known to be a tough prosector and a brilliant investigator on white-collar financial crimes.
Who better than Neil Barofsky to make this happen?
Well, we're not sure why, and we're not sure who, but somebody doesn't like it.
What I find truly ironic is the fact that Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina is complaining to Pres. Elect Obama today about "trashing the dollar" when the GOP lame duck President Bush is doing more to drive up debt in 3 months than Congress has done in the past 4 years.
But accountability is for other people, not Republicans. IOKIYAR...