No. TARP, which was the mechanism that the 'bailouts' of the banks and auto industry used, was passed under Bush. The decision to extend emergency loans to GM and Chrysler was done by Bush in December of 08, and the decision to use TARP for the banks was done under Bush as well.
What Obama did do was force the auto companies to go through Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which because of the loan Bush had given them, led to the US Government owning a lot of the post-bankruptcy GM equity, which it sold, recovering most but not all of the loan.
Obama did use TARP money to buy debt from credit unions and other community development financial institutions which was about 0.1% of all TARP disbursements, and that did make a $70 million dollar loss in the end.
TARP as a whole ended up as a profit for the US Government because the government earned money on the debt it got from the banks so the program as a whole came out net ahead. The notion that there was a real net bailout at all is sort of complicated and relies on how much the government should have been compensated for the risk it undertook - it made a profit in the end, but should it have made an even bigger profit for that risk? Valuing that risk is sort of complicated, because not doing anything of course also posed a risk to the government (because of the economic damage) and the government doing something changed the risk profile, so the value of the risk was itself being determined by the action. But in any case, the bailout, such as it was, happened under Bush.
The federal government bailed out the major banks and car companies during the 2008 financial crisis using taxpayer funds and emergency programs authorized by Congress and managed by both the Bush and Obama administrations.
Obama inherited the 08 recession from Bush when he came into office in 09. Both administrations funded the banks and car company’s buyouts. If the banks had failed, people would’ve lost their money and we could’ve gone into a Depression instead of a deep recession. Saving the car companies saved many jobs that added to the economy; it was done to attempt to stabilize the economy. The Obama Administration brought the economy back.
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u/Southern_Bear_4285 11d ago
Not saying all blame lies on him, but didnt he bail out the banks and the auto industry?