Senate won't let TARP die

A Republican bill to shut down the Troubled Asset Relief Program was killed in the Senate yesterday.  If passed, the bill would have ensured that no additional funds would be issued.  While the fund would stay open to receive repayment, taxpayer exposure would have been capped.

Although the bill would have stripped the Democrats of the ability to use these fund for purposes for which they were never intended, it still garnered some Democrat support.  With 320 billion up for grabs, it fell short of the 60 votes required by only 7.  That makes the total number of Democrats that still have a lingering conscience and do not want to play the shell game with the public trust.

Some of the farces that have been propped-up by TARP are banks with unrealistic debt/equity ratios, the auto industry, and impossibly infrastructure projects (roads and bridges).  Chris Dodd couldn't keep his foot out of his mouth when he mentioned that Obama has promised to use some of the remaining money to help with the foreclosure crisis.

It is noteworthy that Wednesday, the day before this bill was defeated, a bill was entered into the Senate requesting an increase in the debt ceiling by 1.9 TRILLION.  That is more than a 15% increase!!!  This is money that you and I (taxpayers) owe.  How much more can you afford?  Because I am damn near out of money.
Here are some of the numbers as they sit now.

Total public debt subject to limit Jan. 20 12,270,763,000,000

Statutory debt limit 12,394,000,000,000 

Total public debt outstanding Jan. 20 12,327,381,000,000

Deficit fiscal year 2009 1,417,121,000,000

Deficit fiscal year 2008 454,798,000,000

Receipts fiscal year 2009 2,104,613,000,000

Receipts fiscal year 2008 2,523,642,000,000

Outlays fiscal year 2009 3,521,734,000,000

Outlays fiscal year 2008 2,978,440,000,000

Notice that while receipts went down, outlays when up.  That is the reason the deficit is 1 TRILLION more this year than last year.

Here is the scariest number of all.

Gold assets in September 11,041,000,000