Congressional Democrats and Republicans certainly don’t agree on many things these days.
Today, however, they jointly lashed out at the Treasury Department for failing the transparency test after receiving the quarterly report by the Special Inspector General for the TARP program Neil Barofsky.
Testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Barofsky criticized the Treasury Department for refusing to require recipients of TARP funds to explain what they are doing with their government funds and for rejecting several recommendations for more transparency.
Committee Democrats joined Republicans, who had long criticized the track record of the Treasury Department on TARP transparency. Rep. Eodolphus Towns (D-NY), chairman of the committee lamented:
The taxpayers now have a $700 billion spending program that’s being run under the philosophy of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.
Sadly, this seems to be the case. In light of Treasury’s refusal, Congress should step up its efforts to mandate greater transparency in the TARP program. One big first step in that direction would be the passage of H.R. 1242/S.910, the "TARP Accountability and Discosure Act."
Photo credit: Nima