Two Places, Two Statements, One is a Lie

Timmy Geithner testified in Congress that there needs to be a fee on Banks to get all the TARP funds paid back while his boss, President Obama, announces at a Townhall in New Hampshire 30 Billion from TARP funds for SMB lending. So which is it? Is the Administration trying to get taxpayers their money back and pay off the TARP money or are they re-spending it with even less hope of recovering the funds. Perhaps the plan is to tax the banks for all the losses in TARP incurred by this Administration and hence creating a political slush fund for political based pour-ins to the economy without impacting budgets?

SMB lending is risky and Banks traditionally have to use a Government Loan Guarantee from the SBA that Obama already propped up with TARP funds early last year by buying SBA backed loans through the TALF program and increasing the taxpayer exposure to losses by insuring their own held loans.

So here we have the President spending the TARP while his Treasury Secretary lobbies to have the banks make up the shortfalls in TARP. Two separate places, one in Congress and one on the stage of a High School Gymnasium, two statements that are contradictory to each other, so one of them is lying.

You decide.

Update : Senator Judd Gregg has figured it out.