How would you have voted for TARP (by party)?

[Beet]

Unfortunately I have to agree with Oakvale here; of course, TARP tends to be overrated as the singular bill that represented the governments assistance to the financial system, when in fact the dozens of never-voted-on actions by the Federal Reserve had a much greater impact.

It's true that Obama could have tacked further towards reform in the spring of 2009 than he did; nationalizing, replacing the management and then breaking up the banks would have entirely been consistent with the direction of TARP, and could have been done with much the same financial stabilization that actually occurred. Of course, men like Geithner and Summers (especially Geithner) would not have been the ones inclined to carry it out. Obamas economic progressivism has always been exaggerated.