A Billion Here, A Billion There

It's a little troubling when the U.S. Treasury and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) aren’t on the same page when it comes to how many billions of your tax dollars have been or have yet to be used as part of the federal government’s financial service sector bailout packages.

In an interview with George Stephanopoulos this week, Secretary Geithner told him that there was about $135 billion of uncommitted funds left in the federal government's TARP program. However, GAO reports were in direct contrast to this figure - reporting that there was only $32 billion. The GAO later put that number closer $109 billion after considering the unexpected parameters that the Treasury used in arriving at its figure. However, GAO flat-out refuses to accept the $25 billion estimate that the Treasury expects to come from financial institutions returning TARP money.

We're talking billion of dollars here, yet the folks overseeing it aren't even operating from the same set of guidelines. A billion here, a billion there-- this is truly frightening. Talk about fiscal irresponsibility.

The more we get to know about our new Treasury Secretary, the more obvious it's becoming that he has a serious problem with numbers.