Bozell: Media Must Ask Where $350 Billion Went

Bozell: Media Must Ask Where $350 Billion Went

By Dan Gainor (Bio | Archive)
January 28, 2009 - 10:34 ET

President Barack Obama has congressional approval to spend the second half of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money. But before Americans are asked to spend another $350 billion, it is up to government to account for the massive spending that has already occurred. The question at stake: Where exactly is the money?

While both Bloomberg and the Fox Business Network have filed suit to force the government to tell where this money has gone, the rest of the news media have remained largely indifferent to the answer. Journalists have failed to investigate what may be the most extravagant federal spending in our nation's history and at a time when taxpayers can least afford wasteful government programs. With a separate $825-billion stimulus plan in the works, government transparency is essential. Yet the government has provided zero accountability to track the billions of dollars and whether the money will stimulate the economy and create the jobs promised.

Media Research Center President Brent Bozell said it is up to rest of the media to do their jobs. "Other news outlets need to follow the lead of Fox Business and Bloomberg and ask the hard questions here. They must hold the Obama administration accountable for how $350 billion was spent before Americans have to come up with another $350 billion."

Even new Treasury chief Tim Geithner admits ‘oversight and transparency requirements in the original proposal were inadequate.' Taxpayers want to know where their money went and journalists should report on what happened before more money is thrown away.

—Dan Gainor is director of the Business and Media Institute.

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They won't. They figure

January 28, 2009 - 14:00 ET by SpaceManSpiff

They won't. They figure that if they keep their mouth shut, eventually some 'bailout' will come their way.

When someone is handing out money, you don't ask questions. Especially if you are a modern day 'journalist'.

That should be easy...

January 28, 2009 - 10:44 ET by CapeCodScott

That should be easy coming from the most Open Administration ever...

www.ScottOnCapeCod.com

"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation"... until they get fed-up enough to finally say something about it!

→ Argue with success

January 28, 2009 - 10:49 ET by Cool Arrow

I'm afraid Obama will succeed.

Conservative pundits and legislators alike, make sufficient note of the fact that the "stimulus package" will give money to people who don't pay income tax.

But they don't seem eager to attack it from the angle that the plan is an attempt to keep Americans on the dole.

Yeah, I'll take some of my money back. Congress obviously shouldn't have defrauded me of it in the first place, or they wouldn't be giving it back to me.

Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country - Khalil Gibran

exactly cool

January 28, 2009 - 13:06 ET by candance

These people have no concept of their circular logic. If we weren't paying taxes on everything we touch we would actually have the cash to pay for a doctor or keep our own bills paid. And if our bosses weren't paying outrageous taxes as punishment for owning a business they would have more cash to give us a raise....and there would be no need for government welfare!!!!

A government that gives you whatever you need can take whatever you have.

This typical white girl will always embrace what's right.

tarp

January 28, 2009 - 10:57 ET by east tennessee john

Let's see $700 billion that cost $850 billion; that was used to "prop-up" AIG, which Paulson former company had a huge stake in; the elimination of Lehmann and Merrill Lynch from the investment banking business, leaving only Morgan Stanley and Paulson's, suprise suprise Goldman Sachs; no monies used to buy up "toxic assets" so banks could clear their books or begin to reprice risk a lend again; a new Treasury Secretary, a tax cheat, who, like this program, had to be passed because he and only he " understands" what went down when this was developed and he was in the NY FED . Yet no accounting of where the money went. Sounds like Democratic accountability to me.

This isn't real money, just

January 28, 2009 - 11:01 ET by wyogator

This isn't real money, just guvmint money...

"What, me worry?" Alfred E. Neuman

Learn about my daughter's Ugandan home for orphans with AIDS at
www.africaourownhome.org

From now on

January 28, 2009 - 11:02 ET by 10ksnooker

It would be appropriate to address the MSM as PRAVADA. That way it's clear where their viewpoints and news from.

Unbelievable

January 28, 2009 - 13:43 ET by Blonde

Have we become so numb to the enormity of these numbers that we're just going to sit idly by and let the media and Congress get away with this?

$350B, just a few years ago, was the size of the budget deficit, and people were swinging from the rafters screaming their heads off.

Now....it's just a number, that apparently is a "toss-away" money to Congress....no accountability, no blinking....whatever.

We should be up in arms over this, the same way we got those idiots to back down on the illegal amnesty last year.

I used to be an accountant, and one of my sayings was "if you take care of the pennies, the dollars take care of themselves". Which should be revised, to "if you take care of the millions, the billions will take care of themselves". Seriously, do we need $335M for STD prevention? Are we putting our grand children in debt to fund 'Booty Call' and 'Great Sex' for Nanny Pelosi?

From Drudge: In the past, the CDC has used STD education funding for programs that many Members of Congress find objectionable and arguably unrelated to a mission of economic stimulus [such as funding events called 'Booty Call' and 'Great Sex' put on by an organization that received $698,000 in government funds.]

I am totally disgusted. Mr. Bozell is spot-on the money, here.

of course Blonde

January 28, 2009 - 13:50 ET by candance

Deficits only matter when Republicans preside over them. Now that Obama is in charge, deficit spending is an unhappy necessary.

This typical white girl will always embrace what's right.

Blonde

January 28, 2009 - 14:08 ET by thebutlerdidit

Hey, GF!

You are exactly right. If this had of been proposed years ago, the entire Am. population would be freaking. I don't know about ya'll, but I am totally disgusted by the things in this porkulus! Birth control? Abortions? STD prevention money? How about these people quit being so slutty, and if not, we punish them by not allowing them things like food stamps and free housing, if they can't keep their legs shut. I know some people truly need some help, temporarily, but it never is temporary. Once these people get on the dole, they never get off! And then they have more and more kids, and get more and more money. then those kids are raised to believe that is the way to live, and they raise their family the same way. It is a never ending cycle, that is not being broken. As long as these people are being rewarded for bad behavior, why should they do right? I have been as broke as a person can get, and I never had a single bit of help. I used to give my kids lunch money in pennies, for goodness sake, I know what it is like.

Bringing the government in to run Wall Street is like saying, "Dad burned the dinner, let's get the dog to cook." PJ O'Rourke

tbdi

January 28, 2009 - 16:33 ET by Blonde

Oh...it is just totally galling.

Remember when during the debates, GWB was asked about which philosopher had the most influence on him? (He answered Jesus).

Well, my philosopher is Milton Friedman. I know, I know...he's an economist. But.

Best book ever...."Free to Choose"....and Friedman's theory of economics is that government is there for those things ONLY that cannot be done privately...i.e. infrastructure on the scale of interstate highways, national defense, and providing a safety net for those who can't (note, can't) do for themselves (i.e. orphans).

Not for the low-life blood-sucking "gimme" crowd.

Oh how I wish MF were still alive....and the all-knowing economist.

I bet a good steak dinner...

January 28, 2009 - 14:25 ET by wizardjr

I bet that even if they wanted to, Congress could NOT tell you where it went. I wager that most of it went down a rat-hole with no books on it at all - just some nebulous general account. I 'd like to know how many Mercedes, Escalades, and yachts got bought out of our tax money. Then again.... maybe I don't. I don't want to end my life as a national headline involving firearms and 'deranged conservative' in the text.