Issa: Obama White House Among 'Most Corrupt' Ever
VISTA (CBS) — California Rep. Darrell Issa is wasting no time setting his sights as the incoming House Oversight and Government Reform chairman squarely on what he calls "one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times."
While Issa has recently backed off those comments, Politico national political reporter James Hohmann says newly-obtained documents indicate the Vista Republican plans to issue plenty of subpoenas in his new Washington role.
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Armed with overwhelming GOP support, Issa took the airwaves on the first weekend of 2011 to slam President Obama's role in the failed stimulus program.
Issa said that while the Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP) plan — passed in 2008 with the goal of shoring up the financial markets by buying up bad assets by purchasing assets from financial institutions — was approved by Congress under the Bush administration, Obama used the largely unregulated funds as "presidential earmarks."
"All of that would not have been possible if Congress had done its job," Issa said on a recent CNN appearance. "Instead what happened was we gave President Bush (the money and) President Obama inherited $800 billion worth of walking-around money with no guidelines."
Issa recently went on Rush Limbaugh's show to clarify his statements, saying he meant to say the Obama administration was among the "most corrupt", not the president.
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