What Congress "Learned" From TARP is Causing the Foreclosure Crisis to Continue | Mandelman Matters

Congress, as they say, has absolutely no appetite for publicly being asked to pass anything that helps homeowners who aren't able to make their mortgage payments.  It's very much like TARP... a large percentage of constituents won't agree... and they won't like it one bit.  And that means potentially losing the next election, which is an entirely unacceptable risk to those in Congress.

The editorial board has to differ with Mr. Andelman's requisite assumption that TARP was "necessary". The fundamental "need" is not the same when you are comparing making an (ultimately symbolic) show of shoring-up the banks with investing in the middle class by shoring up the soundness of its main asset (the home). The latter is obviously where we really needed to invest to recover in the long term (and have not); the banks bounced back quickly enough when it became clear they had infinite support from the financial authorities (most enduringly, the Fed, not TARP). But the overall point stands: TARP was a pain point for Congress, because of harsh constituent opinion against, and they don't want to have a vote like that again.