Very good article by Michael Barone. This is our money and it hasn’t done anything to improve the situation.

I want to know where my money is going! Hank Paulson looks like a thug and a criminal. For all we know this money is going to the Cayman Islands! This is the biggest robbery in American History!

Paulson, Bernanke, and Congress on the Bailout: Incompetence All Around

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke got beaten up pretty badly in the House Financial Services Committee yesterday. And on at least one point, I think, justifiably so. In his opening statement, Paulson acknowledged that at the time the Senate passed its version of the financial rescue package October 1 and the House passed the same version October 3, he had already decided that the Treasury Department would not embark on the program of acquiring toxic securitized mortgage and other paper from financial institutions, as he was telling Congress it would, and that it would instead use powers in the bill to inject capital into banks and other financial institutions. I think members of Congress have standing to complain when they are asked to approve a piece of legislation on the grounds that the administration will do A, but in fact the administration has already decided to use the broad powers in the bill to do B—and hasn’t told Congress about its change of mind.

This is just unreal!