Congress wants bailout answers …

… and Paulson is taking the heat. Rightfully so. This whole thing is a disgrace.

I was against it from the get-go, and now that it’s a done deal Paulson and the Treasury Department seem to be no better than a room full of drunk monkeys in handling the process. I wouldn’t let Paulson manage my sock drawer at this point.

From the link:

Members of the House Financial Services Committee grilled Paulson for not doing enough to help distressed homeowners and for failing to force banks that get some of the bailout money to specifically use it to bolster lending to customers, one of the prime reasons behind the rescue package.

“It is essential” that some of the bailout money be used to ease foreclosures, said the panel’s chairman, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., a key player in shaping the package that Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed into law Oct. 3.

Amid fits and starts in the administration’s rollout and direction of the program, “I have to say at this point that public confidence in what we have done so far is lower than anybody would want it to be, to the point where it could be an obstacle to further steps,” Frank lamented.

In a break with the administration, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair, made a fresh pitch for using $24 billion of the bailout pool to help Americans at risk of losing their homes. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is urging Paulson to support the FDIC plan.

“As foreclosures escalate, we are clearly falling behind the curve,” Bair warned the panel. “Much more aggressive intervention is needed if we are to curb the damage to our neighborhoods and broader economic health.”