An Early End for Bank Bailouts?

Will this do the trick? After Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) yanked a promising deal off the table by objecting to a bank tax in the proposed financial-overhaul legislation, lawmakers have a new fix in mind. Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-CT), one of the main architects of the bill, suggested Tuesday evening that halting the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, three months ahead of schedule would offset much of the financial-reform bill’s costs and erase the need for the bank fee. Two crucial Republican senators—Maine’s Susan Collins and Brown—have both indicated they might not vote for the bill if includes the $19 billion fee on banks, which is the main source of revenue for the package. The fee was added at the last minute to prevent the bill from adding to the already growing deficit, and Dodd said that by immediately ending the much-aligned $700 billion TARP there would be no effect on the federal deficit.