Thursday, December 11, 2008

Spending Spree

At least the senators who don't think the auto industry deserves a loan are keeping a close eye on how Wall Street is spending their bailout money, right? Well, not exactly.

TPM Muckraker reports:
"Among the measures that Congressional Democrats successfully held out for -- against the wishes of the White House -- were meaningful oversight mechanisms that would allow Congress and others to track what the Treasury Department is doing with all that money.

"That seemed like a victory for taxpayers at the time. But now, over two months later, we've learned a bit about what those oversight mechanisms have been able to provide. And there's real reason to question whether in fact they were designed adequately for the task in the first place.

"'It's a mess,' Eric M. Thorson, the Treasury Department's inspector general, told the Washington Post last month. 'I don't think anyone understands right now how we're going to do proper oversight of this thing.'"



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