Anyway, your recollection is close to accurate. In December a bill was presented in the Senate which would have supplied about $15B in (non-Tarp) emergency loans to the auto industry, using money previously allocated for “re-tooling.” It received 40 Democratic, 2 Independent and 10 Republican votes; not enough to reach the 60 vote threshold. In a move of dubious legality, Bush then ignored express Congressional limits on the use of Tarp funds and advanced more than $13B in emergency loans out of Tarp (with an additional $4B to be available later).

As to Bush granting Obama's “request”, that would be an unusual thing for a Republican to do for a Democrat, wouldn't it? You're right that Obama had expressed support for helping the auto industry, but he stayed away from specifics (remember the “we only have one President at a time” comments?) It would probably be fairer and more accurate to say that Bush kicked the can down the road so that the U.S. auto industry didn't go under on his watch and the next guy would have to deal with the problem.

My recollection is that when it came to allowing TARP funds to be be used for the auto industry that the Democratic leadership was pushing for TARP to be extended to include Detroit. Bush wanted to have Detroit to use the loans provided for new technology to subsidize the bailout. This occurred after the election and Obama expressed support for extending TARP to the auto industry immediately to avert the alleged financial crisis. Bush (lame duck) supported the change based on Obama's request.

So, the argument that TARP was signed by Bush at the request of Obama (why would he do that anyway?), who hadn't yet been elected president, after having been voted into existence by the Democratic party (which was 20 votes short and which received the support of more than two thirds of Republicans) may be slightly questionable.

Is the “they” you refer to the Democrats? TARP was voted into existence by the Democratic party and was only signed off by Bush at the request of Obama. You may recall that the Republicans in the House and the Senate did not support the bailouts.

Until GM made its recent announcement that it will attempt to pay back some of the TARP money by the end of the year, only the Financial industry had a number of banks pay off their TARP loans with interest. I expect that financial institutions will pay off their TARP obligations much sooner than the auto industry.

The bailouts saved jobs in both industries, but not all. Just ask the former employees of Lehman Brothers; they all lost their jobs when the government decided not to save the company. Job losses for anyone are not a good thing – wouldn't you agree?

Finally, as an independent voter, I couldn't agree more that Palin is an idiot and by choosing her it didn't make McCain look good.

Anyway, your recollection is close to accurate. In December a bill was presented in the Senate which would have supplied about $15B in (non-Tarp) emergency loans to the auto industry, using money previously allocated for “re-tooling.” It received 40 Democratic, 2 Independent and 10 Republican votes; not enough to reach the 60 vote threshold. In a move of dubious legality, Bush then ignored express Congressional limits on the use of Tarp funds and advanced more than $13B in emergency loans out of Tarp (with an additional $4B to be available later).

As to Bush granting Obama's “request”, that would be an unusual thing for a Republican to do for a Democrat, wouldn't it? You're right that Obama had expressed support for helping the auto industry, but he stayed away from specifics (remember the “we only have one President at a time” comments?) It would probably be fairer and more accurate to say that Bush kicked the can down the road so that the U.S. auto industry didn't go under on his watch and the next guy would have to deal with the problem.

My recollection is that when it came to allowing TARP funds to be be used for the auto industry that the Democratic leadership was pushing for TARP to be extended to include Detroit. Bush wanted to have Detroit to use the loans provided for new technology to subsidize the bailout. This occurred after the election and Obama expressed support for extending TARP to the auto industry immediately to avert the alleged financial crisis. Bush (lame duck) supported the change based on Obama's request.

So, the argument that TARP was signed by Bush at the request of Obama (why would he do that anyway?), who hadn't yet been elected president, after having been voted into existence by the Democratic party (which was 20 votes short and which received the support of more than two thirds of Republicans) may be slightly questionable.

Is the “they” you refer to the Democrats? TARP was voted into existence by the Democratic party and was only signed off by Bush at the request of Obama. You may recall that the Republicans in the House and the Senate did not support the bailouts.

Until GM made its recent announcement that it will attempt to pay back some of the TARP money by the end of the year, only the Financial industry had a number of banks pay off their TARP loans with interest. I expect that financial institutions will pay off their TARP obligations much sooner than the auto industry.

The bailouts saved jobs in both industries, but not all. Just ask the former employees of Lehman Brothers; they all lost their jobs when the government decided not to save the company. Job losses for anyone are not a good thing – wouldn't you agree?

Finally, as an independent voter, I couldn't agree more that Palin is an idiot and by choosing her it didn't make McCain look good.