Bailout Helps Bowl Game Sponsors

by Michael Illions | January 4, 2009 11:07 am

I am so happy to see that the 700 BILLION dollars is being put to good use; starting with AIG throwing lavish parties after they received their bailout bucks, to banking friends of useless Secretary Treasurer Henry Paulson getting billions.

The latest travesty of bailout bucks recipients, (that shouldn’t have been given out in the first place), is related to sponsors of the very expensive College Bowl games[1]:

Football fans watching this year’s college bowl games may have noticed that some of the biggest sponsors were also recipients of federal bailout money, including Citigroup Inc., which presented the Rose Bowl game, as well as Capital One Financial Corp. and GMAC LLC.

“Some of the advertising folks at these firms might think it’s important to put their corporate brand on public events, but taxpayers might think they’re being taken for a ride,” said Pete Sepp, vice president for policy and communications at the National Taxpayers Union.

Seeing companies sponsor a major athletic event while holding out a hand out for public money from the $700 billion rescue plan highlights one awkward aspect of the government intervention. Treasury has been reluctant to put restrictions on the funds. Typically, big-game sponsorships can cost millions of dollars.

One such bailout bank is Citigroup, who happens to own the naming rights to the new New York Mets stadium. They have received $50 BILLION dollars in various forms to stay “afloat.”

New Jersey Congressman Scott Garrett, a vocal critic of the bailouts, is questioning why the funds are not going to the consumers in the form of the various lending vehicles they offer as intended, and since they aren’t loaning money asks “so what are they advertising for?”

Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, is correct when he says there’s, “zero sense of shame.” The kicker is that Treasury Department officials have stated that “they didn’t want to impose restrictions for fear of reducing participation in TARP.”

So basically, because the Treasury Department was afraid the benefactor’s of the taxpayer funded bailout bucks would reject the money because there would be restrictions on how the money was spent, they made it a $700 BILLION dollar free for all?

Endnotes:
  1. sponsors of the very expensive College Bowl games: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123094249710750433.html

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