TARP Funding Obama

Fact check: TARP was signed into law by President Bush, and the overall cost to taxpayers has been significantly reduced under President Obama.
Attack

Attackers:Michele Bachmann, othersAttack Typeublic remarks, interviews
Attacks claiming the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) was signed into law by President Obama are factually incorrect. Here’s a look at a few of those statements:

• At a Tea Party rally in South Carolina, Michele Bachmann falsely attributed TARP to President Obama, saying “When he came in as the president of the United States, he decided we had to have this $700 billion bailout of Wall Street”
• Fox News commentator Eric Bolling presented a chart titled “Obama’s Checkbook” featuring $700 billion in TARP expenses

Tags:

• + fiscal policy
• + michele bachmann
• + wall street

Fact

Truth posted:September 1, 2011Evidencerimary source documents, original legislation

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TARP was proposed by the Bush administration and signed into law in October 2008 by President Bush, months before President Obama took office. The legislation was passed with strong bipartisan support in Congress, including that of 34 Republican senators and 91 Republican representatives. President Bush and Treasury Secretary Paulson proposed and approved the measure that stood to become the most expensive government intervention in history, while members of Congress said it was only a first step and pledged to pursue longer-term overhaul of the nation’s financial regulatory system.

• Read the Department of the Treasury’s Frequently Asked Questions about TARP

Under President Obama, initiatives were added to TARP to help protect Americans affected by Wall Street’s actions. Thanks to President Obama’s expansion of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, thousands of middle-class working homeowners avoided foreclosure, more than 1 million jobs were saved through the TARP-funded rescue of the American auto industry, and millions of dollars in funding helped more than 400 small and community banks continue to serve their local customers.
Under President Obama, the overall cost to taxpayers of TARP has become significantly less than its initial projections. Since April 2009, the Congressional Budget Office says TARP’s price tag has dropped from $356 billion to $19 billion. The legislation helped stabilize the economy during the height of the financial crisis, and used only $475 billion of the $700 billion initially authorized by President Bush.

• Check out this Washington Post article about TARP’s anticipated price tag