Rick Perry’s TARP Troubles

Texas Gov. and GOP frontrunner Rick Perry attends a campaign event in Corona Del Mar, California. September 8, 2011.
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Rick Perry will attend a fundraiser on Tuesday hosted by former AIG chief Hank Greenberg, whose company was at the center of the 2008 bailout.

AIG, which Greenberg ran until 2005, was one of the most spectacular collapses of the financial crisis and among the most costly companies to rescue. The New York Times, reporting on the fundraiser, notes that it received more than $180 billion in federal aid.

Perry’s own position on the bailout has been the subject of some contention. He ran against Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) in 2010 by labeling her “Kay Bailout” for her vote for TARP and was extremely critical of the government rescue in his book “Fed Up!”

But he wasn’t always such a hardliner: in October 2008 he co-signed a bipartisan letter as leader of the Republican Governors Association urging Congress to act quickly to rescue the economy in the aftermath of the first TARP vote, which failed. “We strongly urge Congress to leave partisanship at the door and pass an economic recovery package,” the letter read. “It is time for Washington, D.C. to step up, be responsible, an do what’s in the best interest of American taxpayers and our economy.”

Recently an Iowan confronted Perry over the letter at an event, leading Perry to tell her that “you saw wrong.” The Perry campaign maintains that the letter did not indicate support for TARP, which is not mentioned in it, though in the context of the moment it’s difficult to see what else it could have referred to.

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