The 20 banks that received the most of the original TARP money actually reduced, not increased, their lending. And some used the money to buy other institutions. So how does the administration explain the failure of the "bailout" money to "unfreeze" lending?

Blame Rush Limbaugh.

The government now holds equity positions in several institutions, including, but not limited to, the giant insurer AIG. Since taking these positions, the government's market value has dropped, placing the taxpayers deeper and deeper in the hole. General Motors, one of the Small Three, received -- so far -- some $13.4 billion in federal loans. But its losses continue, and GM now says it needs an additional $16.6 billion.

Blame Rush Limbaugh.

The president promised to eliminate pork, earmarks and/or special projects designed to please constituents. The $789 billion spending spree plan he recently signed is larded with pork-barrel projects. How does he square this legislation with his promise to end pork spending?

Blame Rush Limbaugh.

Republicans deserve harsh criticism for failing to rein in non-defense, non-homeland security spending when they controlled the presidency and both houses of Congress. Republicans helped gut the Freedom to Farm Act (designed to wean farmers from subsidies); OK'd pork-riddled energy and highway bills; expanded the federal government's role in education through, among other things, the No Child Left Behind Act; passed -- with the prescription benefits bill for seniors -- the largest expansion of Medicare in decades; and increased government regulation as much as or more than under Democratic administrations.

But the Obama administration now puts spending on steroids, and all but three Republicans voted against the latest legislation. How does the Obama administration explain its failure to achieve its vaunted "bipartisanship"?

Blame Rush Limbaugh.

RNC Chairman Steele needs to focus on the merits of the Republican approach -- lower taxes, less government domestic spending, and fewer regulations. Punishing high achievers by taxing them destroys incentive and thus destroys jobs. Transferring money from one pocket to another destroys the initiative of the giver and the given. Private capital knows best whether, how and when to "invest." The private sector "creates or saves" jobs, not government. When Obama's "new New Deal" fails to achieve the desired objectives, we already know what happens next.

Blame Rush Limbaugh, who, by the way, is not just laughing all the way to the bank. At today's bargain-basement prices, he probably owns several.