Treasury Dept. Hosting Holiday Party In "Cash Room"

The Treasury Department may be in the midst of one of the greatest challenges in its history but it won't be canceling its annual holiday party.

The Department has sent out invitations to the December 11, 2008 gala, which will feature Secretary Hank Paulson and his deputy Robert Kimmitt.

It would be soulless to criticize Treasury for indulging in a bit of Holiday cheer. And the fact that they are hosting the event at the department's D.C. headquarters suggests this won't be a blowout affair.

But the fact that they chose to host the party in the "Cash Room" is either an overt attempt at contemporary humor or a subconscious-influenced coincidence. Either way, it's ironic. The Treasury may end up spending over a trillion taxpayer dollars in an effort to save the financial markets from massive chaos. Right now, word is getting out that Paulson wants the second ($350 billion) half of the Troubled Assets Relief Program money. Congress, however, isn't exactly keen about forking over the cash.

Comments

[separatingwheatfromchaff]

What's the big deal,cash room,smash room,it's all worthless paper now and they know it.

[Rog49Thomas]

Ohmigod, he's not even inaugurated yet and the "War on Xmas" is in full swing with a Government Department on the side of the evil forces.

Paging Bill O"Bluster and Sean H. --- to the barricades!

[friscotxmom]

*sniff*sniff*

Are those torches I smell?

[thisoldbroad]

It's an employee party - like so many other employee parties this season.
It's not a big $$ event with expensive meals & overpriced entertainment.
Good grief people, these employees haven't caused the recession.
Their holiday party is OK with me.

Perhaps they'll have a dunk tank for some key management people..
PARTY. PARTY. PARTY.

[wanked]

Paulson had nothing to do with the Recession.?....bah HUMBUG

[thisoldbroad]

I was thinking he'd get a turn in the dunk tank.

[darter22]

I'm a taxpayer. I'm going to the party. Hell, I paid for it.

[hilary916]

Seriously. We should all crash it.

[tel8034]

With all the cash being doled out for bailouts, this might be the ONLY room in the building which has the empty space to hold a party.

Bush and Co has put in place an environment where there is NO cash which is even able to be counted.

[DIAGUY]

DON'T WORRY THERE'S STILL QUITE A BIT OF CASH OUT THERE, THE PROBLEM IS VERY FEW ARE SPENDING IT...EXCEPT ME, I'M DOING MY PART TO 'GOOSE' THE ECONOMY.....LOL

[mtflyer]

FORK IT OVER ONLY IF PAULSON RESIGNS! He is as big a crook as anyone on Wall Street.

[haramagoti]

Can't someone get Angler Paulson an education out of this? I mean i know i've belabored the point, but economics-savvy officials are embarrassed to be in the same room as him and Bernanke, seriously. Credentials anyone? Most banking and investment big-shots inherited or sucked ass to the top with few exceptions, by the look on his face, i'd say both, and not the exception. He plays grim reaper for the cameras, then when they're off, or his back's turned to them or he's got a big wheel like China's ass he's trying to shine in front of him, he's a regular Mardi Gras. Give us accountability, an audit, Any kind of record of what you've already spent and an assurance documented that those moneys have a way of finding their way back to our immediate future economy, from thence it comes. It should be criminal to do otherwise. What part of cover your ass don't you understand Mr. Paulson? I'll take all the cheap shots back when you've proven to the public you're in fact worth one.

[loki]

woohoo, and we get to pay for it all!!!

[fearless420]

Here's more info about the Cash Room: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/garden/01treasury.html?_r=1
Some are saying we should flood the email on the invite. I think people should rally up and crash the party in protest.
That's one swanky party space. You could fit a lot of hogs at that gilded trough, y'all.

[Tweet]

At $40,000 apiece, the $700 billion bank bailout could have paid the salaries of 17,500,000 Americans for a year.

The whole thing seems simple to me. Any company in danger of going under or which plans to shed substantial jobs should be nationalized - not necessarily put under government management, but owned by the government, with no payment either to the company or its shareholders. We pay the salaries of the workers - and, by the way, management gets the same salary - and they stay in production, short term, even if they don't produce anything anyone wants.

We need people working and spending? We need people to stay in their houses? Then cut out the middleman and address the problem directly.

When things improve, we give the companies back to their shareholders and they can resume destroying the economy all over again.

[mtflyer]

EXCELLENT IDEAS!

[spinns17]

lol choke

[spinns17]

hope they chock on there food.

[jsgaetano]

Guess we know what Paulson is saving those hundred$ of billion$ for.

Is AIG supplying the "entertainment" as a way of saying thanks?

[TrialDate]

maybe thats where the tax payers money went...to paulson and his buddies...

[mtflyer]

IS THERE REALLY THE SLIGHTEST DOUBT?

[aweissnet]

Maybe Paulson should bail them out then.