The 60 Second Update with

Congressman Jeb Hensarling

5. Under this bill, what percentage of the original TARP money spent will the taxpayers get back?

The best outcome for taxpayers is to get their money back, reduce the debt, and enable voluntary capital investments – not involuntary taxpayer investments – to once again determine who succeeds and who fails in our economy.  A vibrant banking sector free of taxpayer money is critical for economic growth and prosperity.

My legislation ends the TARP on December 31, 2009, but it will take many years to know how much of the TARP money taxpayers can expect to get back.  At this point, the only certainty is that taxpayers will lose money on TARP.  The first step is to prevent the Treasury from creating new programs or making new investments through existing programs. My legislation will prevent further squandering of taxpayer dollars.  Once we stop the Treasury from risking more taxpayer dollars, we will have to turn our attention to how best to dispose of the assets the Treasury accumulated through the TARP program.

 Question 1. TARP is reportedly profitable, so why should we end it?