Obama weighs decision about bailout funds

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-12 10:04

WASHINGTON -- US President-elect Barack Obama vowed to restructure a financial rescue plan to save more US families from home foreclosures, as he considered on Sunday whether to seek additional funds from a $700 billion bailout program.

President-elect Barack Obama at a news conference in Chicago, December 7, 2008. [Agencies]

Obama's aides have been in discussions with the White House over whether President George W. Bush should ask Congress for permission to use the remaining $350 billion of the funds, which are aimed at stabilizing the financial system.

The purpose of the request, which would be formally submitted by Bush, would be to have the funds in place soon after Obama takes office on January 20.

But it may prove difficult to get approval from Congress because the bailout program is unpopular with many lawmakers who feel too much of the money has already been given to Wall Street firms that have continued to pay huge bonuses to executives.

The legislators want to some of the remaining money to be used instead to help struggling homeowners.

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, after leaving a meeting with other senators and some of Obama's top aides, said the president-elect was close to a decision on the bailout fund, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

"It's my understanding that the president-elect is going to make a judgment somewhere in the next hours," Kerry told reporters. "I think the president elect will make known -- because he's the one who's going to be controlling that -- what he would like to see happen on that."

Top Obama aides Larry Summers and Jason Furman were holding closed-door meetings with Kerry and other senators to discuss, not only the bailout funds but also a proposed $775 billion stimulus package that Obama and the Democrats say is needed to pull the US economy out of a deep slump.

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