President-elect Barack Obama criticized the Bush administration in an interview broadcast Sunday for the lack of oversight in implementing the $700 billion federal bailout plan for the reeling U.S. financial system and called for tighter controls on how the remaining funds are spent, according to AP. The incoming president's economic team and the Bush administration are in consultations about release of the second $350 billion allocated under the bailout measure. But the Treasury Department has come under criticism for failing to provide taxpayers and Congress with sufficient disclosure about or control over the massive infusion of money into the financial system. «Let's lay out very specifically some of the things that we are going to do with the next $350 billion of money,» Obama said in an interview broadcast on ABC television. «And I think that we can regain the confidence of both Congress and the American people that this is not just money that is being given to banks without any strings attached and nobody knows what happens, but rather that it is targeted very specifically at getting credit flowing again to businesses and families.» He also voiced dissatisfaction with how the first $350 billion was spent under the Troubled Asset Relief Program passed by Congress last fall. «I, like many, are disappointed with how the whole TARP process has unfolded. There hasn't been enough oversight. We found out this week in a report that we are not tracking where this money is going,» the president-elect said. The Congressional Oversight Panel raised detailed questions last week about how banks are spending the first $350 billion, how the money will combat the rising tide of home foreclosures and the Treasury Department's overall strategy for the rescue. In instance after instance, the panel said, the Treasury Department did not offer adequate responses. Obama declined to say whether he wants President George W. Bush to request the rest of the money before Obama is sworn in Jan. 20, but he said he has asked his economic team to develop a set of principles to ensure more openness about how the money is spent and to focus on using it more to help homeowners and small businesses. Among the approaches under consideration by Obama aides and congressional Democrats are limiting executive pay at institutions that receive the money and forcing those institutions to get rid of any private aircraft they may own or lease. «I think that when you look at how we have handled the home foreclosure situation and whether we've done enough in terms of helping families on the ground who may have lost their homes because they lost their jobs or because they got sick, we haven't done enough there,» Obama said. In the interview taped Saturday, Obama also conceded it will be difficult to enforce his pledge to ban lawmakers from including unessential «earmarked» spending projects for their districts in a second massive stimulus plan he is negotiating with Congress that could total nearly $800 billion. «In a package of this magnitude, will there end up being certain projects that potentially don't meet that criteria of helping on health care, energy or education? Certainly,» he said. But Obama said inaction carries too great a risk. «We can't afford three, four, five, six more months where we're losing half a million jobs per month. And the estimates are that if we don't do anything, we could see 4 million jobs lost this year.» House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vowed Sunday that the package that comes out of the lower chamber would include no earmarks and predicted the stimulus plan might exceed $775 billion. Some lawmakers have put the price tag at nearly $1 trillion. «I think we should do the package that is necessary to turn our economy around,» Pelosi said on CNN. Vice President Dick Cheney said the administration's bailout program has had a «significant positive impact» by guaranteeing liquidity in the financial system and adequate capital in the banking system. Although such intervention goes against conservative principles, Cheney said, the financial system is the federal government's responsibility and is under threat from the economic crisis. «I would rather see a smaller government. But we've always said, and I firmly believe, that you do make exceptions for budget restraint. And those exceptions are wars, for example, national crises,» Cheney said in an interview aired Sunday on CNN's «Late Edition.» «So there have been reasons why we've had to commit those funds and run up the deficit. I'd rather it hadn't been necessary, but I do think it was necessary, given the problems we're faced with,» he said. Obama, who has been receiving daily national security briefings since his election in November, also acknowledged that his campaign pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay will be more of a challenge than he anticipated. Many of those held at the military site are suspected terrorists or potential witnesses in cases against them. «It is more difficult than I think a lot of people realize _ and we are going to get it done _ but part of the challenge that you have is that you have a bunch of folks that have been detained, many of whom may be very dangerous who have not been put on trial or have not gone through some adjudication,» he said. The president-elect said that while some evidence against terrorism suspects may be tainted by the tactics used to obtain it, that doesn't change the fact they are «people who are intent on blowing us up.» Speaking in general terms, Obama said the country had made progress in becoming safer since the Sept. 11 attacks, but dangers persist. He said national security remains a concern, but added: «We know exactly what they're planning, where they're positioned. If you have a small group of people in today's world with today's technology who are intent on doing harm and are willing to die, that is something that's always going to be a challenge.»
