Morris, McGann claim banks repaid "$500 billion in TARP funds"

From the February 5 New York Post column:

Obama's announced intention to freeze 13 percent of the budget for three years is a relatively minor cut. It will trim the deficit by only 3 percent over the decade.

But if the president really wanted to get serious about reducing the deficit, he's got two easy steps to take:

1) Stop the remaining $500 billion of last year's $800 billion stimulus package.

2) Refund to the Treasury the $500 billion in TARP funds repaid by the banks.

Instead, he's merrily spending the remaining stimulus cash -- even though the first round failed to curb the recession, doing little more than protecting the jobs and pay of state and local government employees. The remaining money would do more of the same -- while also funding pork-barrel projects all over America.

Morris previously made this claim in a Hill column and on Fox News' Fox & Friends.

But Treasury Department reported significantly lower figure for TARP repayments

As of January 6, 2010, government received $165.18 billion in TARP repayments. From the Treasury Department's monthly TARP report:

The report also stated that “Treasury has received a total of approximately $12.89 billion in dividends, interest and fees through December 2009.”

BusinesssWeek: “Bank repayments have totaled $165 billion.” From a February 1 Bloomberg BusinessWeek article on a recent report by the TARP inspector general:

The Treasury, which administers the TARP, had planned to spend about $500 billion of the total amount to support financial firms, auto companies, purchase mortgage-backed securities and help homeowners. Bank repayments have totaled $165 billion and exposure was further cut by another $5 billion, leaving almost $370 billion available in TARP at the end of 2009, the report said.