This Used To Be America...

God Help Us...

Excerpting...

There is no "A, R or P" in the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program, quipped U.S. Bancorp Chief Executive Richard Davis Tuesday morning in front of about 300 business people in Minneapolis.

"It's just troubled," the 50-year-old CEO said at the Thrivent Financial for Lutherans' Business Leaders Forum. The forum invites executives to discuss how business and their principles intersect.

Ah... principles... those were the days...

...Davis was critical of the U.S. Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program introduced last fall, saying that while the program was well intended, it has turned out to be "lousy."

Created to encourage lending to small businesses and consumers, TARP started by shoveling tens of billions of dollars at the country's biggest banks but soon was expanded to include banks of all sizes. Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp got $6.6 billion.

Billions of OUR dollars, my friends...

"I will say this very bluntly: We were told to take it. Not asked, told. 'You will take it,' " Davis said. "It doesn't matter if you were there on the first night and you were told to sign on the dotted line before you walked out of the office, or whether in the days that followed, you were told to take it."

Now I'm not one for exaggeration, but this sounds like government policy made in China, any fascist or self-styled communist state, a tin pot dictatorship, or some sub-plot inserted into a novel or movie...

This is not MY America my friends...

(*SIGH*)

Davis went on to say in his talk that while government officials marketed the program as a way to entice banks to lend again, TARP actually was designed to give solid banks like U.S. Bancorp some extra cash to buy weaker banks in the system. U.S. Bancorp did just that late last year when it acquired the assets of two failed banks in California, Downey Savings and Loan and PFF Bank & Trust.

"We were told to take it so that we could help Darwin synthesize the weaker banks and acquire those and put them under different leadership," he said. "We are not even allowed to mention that. ... We were supposed to say the TARP money was used for lending."

My God... are you reading this...?!?! This is an outrage... unbelievable... unAmerican...

How can anyone - Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative - read this and not shudder in horror at what the politicians are doing to our nation...???

But Davis is talking about it now, he says, because he and others oppose current and future strings attached to the program. Davis didn't detail those strings, but he said he and some peers intend to voice their opinions to Washington, D.C., soon.

"Now they're punishing you for having the capital," he said, adding that he refuses to stand by and let his company become "collateral damage" in an attempt to nationalize the banks.

And nationalization does indeed seem to be on the table.

(*SIGH*)

Davis touted U.S. Bancorp as a strong player in a weak industry, but also gave props to local competitors Wells Fargo & Co., TCF Financial Corp. and Bremer Financial.

"That's why this city will continue to come through this difficult time better than almost any major city in America," said Davis, who came to Minnesota from California. "We didn't get into the stupid stuff two years ago that would have impaired us from doing the normal stuff today. So there."

Davis also disclosed that a number of other states and cities have been working hard to lure U.S. Bancorp away from the Twin Cities, but assured the crowd that so long as he remains in charge, the company will stay right where it is. The company employs more than 10,000 people in Minnesota.

God bless Richard Davis and let us pray that as the Age of Obama proceeds, men and women of his ilk continue to speak truth to political power run amuck.