Apparently Congress is doing some bipartisanity of its own, without the intervention of President Obama. And possibly without his approval. Yesterday, Congress (with overwhelming support from both parties) quickly gave its approval to greatly expand the powers of the Inspector General investigating the use of bailout funds by recipient banks. This IG, Neil Barofsky, is a federal prosecutor making sure that the bailout funds aren’t being abused, as they no doubt are due to the lack of oversight put into the original TARP bill.
Well, now the oversight has teeth: the IG is empowered to make warrantless arrests under “reasonable suspicion”, to seek/execute warrants for arrests, search or seizure, and to carry a gun in the course of duty. Talk about awesome, the bailout is being guarded by an gun-toting prosecutor who’s tasked with tracing every dollar of taxpayer money. And if he finds abuse, he is permitted, nay encouraged, to respond with the excessive violence and questionably constitutional methods the government uses in prosecuting crimes committed by, you know, the poor.
I think that’s the first convincing evidence of actual change I’ve seen coming out of Washington so far.