Quick Fact: Despite her previous support, Palin bashed TARP as "crony capitalism"
In appearances at the National Tea Party Convention and on Fox News Sunday, Sarah Palin repeated criticism of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) as "crony capitalism at its worst," a "slush fund," and claimed that part of the "fundamental difference" between conservatives and the Obama White House is that conservatives know government bailouts are "not the answer." In fact, Palin supported TARP when it was first implemented, saying that "it is a time of crisis and government did have to step in," and later wrote that Republican opposition to TARP was "not helpful to our cause."
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From Palin's February 6 speech at the National Tea Party Convention:
PALIN: Today, in the words of Congressman Paul Ryan, the $700 billion TARP has morphed into crony capitalism at its worst, and it's becoming a slush fund for the Treasury Department's favorite big players, just as we had been warned about. And while people on Main Street look for jobs, people on Wall Street, they're collecting billions and billions in your bailout bonuses. Among the top 17 companies that received your bailout money, 92 percent of the senior officers and directors, they still have their good jobs, and every day Americans are wondering, where are the consequences for they -- helping to get us into this worst economic situation since the Great Depression? Where are the consequences?
From the February 7 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday:
PALIN: The point being, millions of jobs have been lost because I think, Chris, what's coming from the White House is just a fundamental difference from a lot of conservatives in our belief that government is not the answer. The bailouts, the takeovers of the private sector -- that's not the answer. That is not what built this great country into the most prosperous, healthiest, safest country on earth. No, it is free enterprise, it's the innovation and work ethic of our small businesses and our entrepreneurs, empowering them to be able to keep more of what they earn and reinvest according to their priorities and then be able to create jobs one -- one job at a time with the principles that are free market, free enterprise-based. I don't think that is what we're seeing coming out of the White House. It's quite fundamental, the difference there.
Fact: Palin supported TARP when it was first implemented
Palin on "economic bailout provisions": "[I]t is a time of crisis and government did have to step in." During an October 21, 2008, CNN interview, Palin said: "Now, as for the economic bailout provisions and the measures that have already been taken, it is a time of crisis and government did have to step in playing an appropriate role to shore up the housing market to make sure that we're thawing out some of the potentially frozen credit lines and credit markets, government did have to step in there."
Palin: GOP opposition to TARP "not helpful to our cause." In her 2009 book Going Rogue, Palin wrote:
[T]he House of Representatives rejected a Bush-backed economic bailout plan in a vote in which two-thirds of Republicans voted no. The impression this made on the electorate was not helpful to our cause. Millions of Americans were poised to go bankrupt or lose their savings, and the perception was that Republicans had failed to respond. [Page 270]
Fact: Palin has previously bashed TARP without admitting her initial support
Palin criticized McCain as a "progressive" who "was for the bank bailouts." In a January 13 interview with Fox News' Glenn Beck, Palin criticized her 2008 Republican presidential running mate, John McCain, as a "progressive" who "was for the bank bailouts." Neither Beck nor Palin noted her previous support of TARP.
Then she was told what the tebaggin' terrorists thought, and immediately changed her mind. Sort of like how "the r-word" was "heartbreaking" one day, and "satire" the next. But I forget that overt hypocrisy IOKIYAR...
Got it. She's nuts I tells ya, nuts!
Well, it sure gets rid of the surplus population, doesn't it?...
I never thought anyone could be dumber than Bush on the national stage..but Palin just keeps on giving.It gets scarier and scarier that more 25 people buy into her nonsense!!!
This part of the speech is possibly the most disingenuous bit of faux populism I've ever heard, stoking hatred of Wall Street, while opposing any effort at responsible business regulation. If it were up to Palin and the teabaggers, they'd give those banks medals of honor for giving away bailout money as bonuses.