President-elect Barack Obama has launched an aggressive campaign to persuade Congress to permit him to spend another $350 billion of the financial bailout program to stabilize the US financial system. On Monday, the Bush White House formally notified lawmakers of Obama’s intention to use the second half of the $700 billion bailout package. Congress has fifteen days to approve a resolution blocking the funds. Obama vowed his administration would do a better job to track how money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program is spent.

President-elect Barack Obama: “I think many of us have been disappointed with the absence of clarity, the lack of transparency, the failure to track how the money has been spent and the failure to take bold action with respect to areas like housing, consumer credit, so that we can maintain credit flow, small businesses, students who need students loans, people who are interested in buying a car getting car loans, that in all sorts of ways Main Street has not seen the effects of these efforts.”