Hey, remember when we had to get those bad mortgages off the books of the banks right now or our entire economy would collapse? Remember what they said?

"No, you don't understand, it has to be done right this second! Now, now, now! No time to think! No time to get expert opinions! You'll make money on the deal, we swear! Do it, do it, do it, now, now, now or else it's all over! There will be a credit lockdown, the economy will collapse, and we'll be pushing shopping carts around all day and living in cardboard boxes!"

Well, that was then. This is now...

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Wednesday the $700 billion government rescue program will not be used to purchase troubled assets as originally planned.

Paulson said the administration will continue to use $250 billion of the program to purchase stock in banks as a way to bolster their balance sheets and encourage them to resume more normal lending.

He announced a new goal for the program to support financial markets, which supply consumer credit in such areas as credit card debt, auto loans and student loans.

...The administration decided that using billions of dollars to buy troubled assets of financial institutions at the current time was "not the most effective way" to use the $700 billion bailout package, he said.

The announcement marked a major shift for the administration which had talked only about purchasing troubled assets as it lobbied Congress to pass the massive bailout bill.

Paulson said the administration is exploring other options, including injecting more capital into banks on a matching basis, in which government funds would be supplied to banks that were able to raise capital on their own.

Here's a thought: if we don't need the money for the purpose it was originally intended for, why don't we just call the whole bailout off? Just because Congress made a decision under duress to go 700 billion dollars into debt doesn't mean we still have to do it. I mean, they are still allowed to say: Gee, come to think of it, we don't need to spend that money after all...

PS: What do you think the odds are that some how, some way, Henry Paulson will end up making dump trucks full of cash off of one of the very companies he's "bailing out" today? I'd say that they're pretty good.

Hat tip to Outside the Beltway for the story.