The White House has confirmed that President Obama, in a sppech to be delived at the Brookings Institution this week will propose the expenditure of TARP funding to boost job development, aid small businesses and initiate infrastructure projects. Suzanne Malveaux, CNN reports:
“The president, in an economic speech before the Brookings Institution on Tuesday, will argue that the money would be well spent by funding projects to build bridges and roads, weatherize homes, and provide other assistance for small businesses as well as the unemployed….
“Congress in October 2008 authorized President George W. Bush’s plan for $700 billion for TARP to bail out the nation’s largest banks and financial institutions. But the banks have been repaying their loans faster than
expected, so the government finds itself with untapped TARP money that it potentially could use for other domestic programs….
“In a blog previewing the president’s speech, White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said, ‘We don’t think there is one silver bullet, one plan, one speech or a singular piece of legislation that alone will solve double digit unemployment. And the president’s speech will not represent the totality of our plans for continued economic recovery.'”
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-Victoria Harper