The NYT reports on plans to use unspent TARP money to pay jobless benefits and other purposes. The TARP money was appropriated as loans, not expenditures. The Congressional Budget Office assumed that the vast majority of this money would be repaid and therefore returned to the Treasury. If some of this money is instead spent on unemployment benefits or other purposes, it has the same impact on the budget as if new money was appropriated for these purposes. Reporters should point out this fact.
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