The NY Times fact checks President Obama’s whopper about the TARP program

During President economic speech on Tuesday, he once again went back to the only thing he has experience in — campaigning against the other party.  President Obama stated that “We were forced to take those steps largely without the help of an opposition party which, unfortunately, after having presided over the decision-making that led to the crisis, decided to hand it over to others to solve” when describing the Tarp program.

The NY Times in a FACT CHECK piece state that Obama likes both sides of an argument:

THE FACTS: Obama’s partisan swipe glosses over some of the circumstances before he took office. First, he and his fellow Democrats presided over some of the decision-making that led up to the crisis, because they controlled Congress for two years before Obama became president. Obama’s Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner also had a hand, as chief of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York under the Bush administration.

Moreover, the $700 bailout fund was initiated under the Bush administration by then Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. It was endorsed at the time by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and by Geithner. As Illinois senator during the presidential campaign, Obama backed that package.

Check out the full NY Times FACT CHECK on President Obama’s economic speech.