Leave it to politics to turn the tables as the only successful Obama economic program to date was not part of his recovery program at all but was the bank bailout by the Bush Administration. Obama is taking credit for the program that has already made a $4 billion profit for the US Treasury.
Of course only the banks Bush gave money have repaid. Once the Democrats took control with the election of Obama the bank bailout became the housing bailout (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac), the insurance bailout (AIG), and the union/automaker bailout (GM and Chrysler). None of them have repaid the government billions yet.
Still it didn't keep Obama from taking credit for the bank repayments and the profit to the government. Not only does Obama never missed a chance to blame Bush for everything bad that has happened since Obama took office but now he won't give Bush credit for anything that might go right.
The Banks and the profit made include:
Goldman Sachs $1.4 billion
Morgan Stanley $1.3 billion
American Express $414 million
In addition five other banks including Northern Trust, Bank of New York Mellon, State Street, U.S. Bancorp and BB&T each paid between $100 million and $334 million in profits. These figures do not include 14 smaller banks who paid about $35 million in profits.
Of course another element of the bailout, the effort to stimulate home sales, has had little impact. The same is true of the program to buy the toxic loans currently held by the banks and capable of disrupting any economic recovery. But then you can't get what you were promised under this Administration so get used to it.
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