$10 trillion and counting...

From Bloomberg's Mark Pittman and Bob Ivry:

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The stimulus package the U.S. Congress is completing would raise the government’s commitment to solving the financial crisis to $9.7 trillion, enough to pay off more than 90 percent of the nation’s home mortgages.

And Bush / Obama want us to believe that they're helping us? If so, they could've just bought every mortgage in America by now. Unfortunately, the goal isn't to help the little guy... it's to help the rich and the powerful... not that either Bush or Obama even realize it. They both drink the kool-aid served up by Helicopter Ben and Taxman Tim.

The article further explains:

The Federal Reserve, Treasury Department and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation have lent or spent almost $3 trillion over the past two years and pledged up to $5.7 trillion more. The Senate is to vote this week on an economic-stimulus measure of at least $780 billion. It would need to be reconciled with an $819 billion plan the House approved last month.

Truly troubling though:

Only the stimulus bill to be approved this week, the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program passed four months ago and $168 billion in tax cuts and rebates enacted in 2008 have been voted on by lawmakers. The remaining $8 trillion is in lending programs and guarantees, almost all under the Fed and FDIC. Recipients’ names have not been disclosed.

And President Obama promises to have the most transparent and accountable administration in American history?*

Perhaps even more troubling is how truly foolish our elected representatives appear:

“We’ve seen money go out the back door of this government unlike any time in the history of our country,” Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, said on the Senate floor Feb. 3. “Nobody knows what went out of the Federal Reserve Board, to whom and for what purpose. How much from the FDIC? How much from TARP? When? Why?”

Dorgan is asking questions. Great! So how 'bout getting some answers?! Oh wait... you're not allowed to question Bernanke / Geithner. Sure, you could subpoena them and require them to testify under oath... as Nancy Pelosi used to promise about Bush. But these are questions of "national security."

Or is it that questions are no longer necessary because it's a Democratic administration?

Just keep drinking the kool-aid Byron. And don't worry... it's just the US dollar at risk. NBD.

Tim White

* If you Obama is serious about transparency, just look at Geithner's past few months at The Fed and Treasury here, here, here, here, here and here.