Human Wrongs Watch – SocialistWorker
By Petrino DiLeo*
While the media focused on the Washington charade over raising the federal debt ceiling and cutting the estimated budget deficit, a a one-time audit of the Federal Reserve released in late July [1] showed that the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve Bank have doled out an incredible $16 trillion in assistance to financial institutions and corporations in the U.S. and around the world.
Wall Street | Wikimedia Commons
The audit, conducted by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), was mandated as part of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act sponsored by Democratic lawmakers Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank.
The audit revealed that the various emergency lending facilities, guarantee programs and bailouts for Wall Street–a project wholeheartedly supported by both major parties–was in itself far larger than the deficit that now has the same parties gunning for deep cuts to critical social programs.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 