BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

Henry Paulson has more magic up his sleeve than Harry Houdini did. Just think about the “changes” in plans we have seen since the September melt-down. Paulson’s new plan consists of rolling up the TARP and rolling out the red carpet to his banking buds.

Can we all remember Ol’ Hank pleading with America to give him the money to buy up those toxic assets? Remember that TARP stands for Troubled Asset Relief Program. Of course, that didn’t mean our troubled assets, like our houses. But, I thought it meant the troubled assets of the banks.

Well, here is the Senate hearing, the one where Paulson and Bernanke put the fear of God, if not the fear of total financial collapse, into the Senate and the nation.

Well, the plan was first to buy toxic assets. That was then. But, this is now.

The Bush administration on Wednesday publicly backed away from using a $700 billion bailout fund to buy toxic mortgage assets as originally intended, and said it will focus instead on shoring up financial institutions with direct investments.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told a news conference he was considering using remaining bailout funds on a second round of purchases of preferred shares in both banks and non-bank institutions that would match privately raised funds.

He also said the Treasury was working with the Federal Reserve on a plan to shore up markets for securitized consumer debt such as car loans, student loans and credit cards, which could help restore credit flows to U.S. households.

Well, it looks as if Paulson is going good on his word to his banking buddies. When it comes to foreclosures? Well…

Paulson said the U.S. Treasury was duty-bound to help prevent mortgage foreclosures, but he warned that further aid would likely mean a significant government subsidy — signaling a lack of support for a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp proposal for more aggressive aid to borrowers.

It seems that the program Sheila Bair of the FDIC has put together as a test run is doing more to save homeowners than everything Paulson has done to help “the people.”

Today the one thing we have seen is that Paulson’s plan changes as often as Paris Hilton changes clothes. Other than that, let’s hope Paulson has lots of pairs of pants because he seems to be flying by his.