Bush Ignoring the Rule of Law?

Congress could not pass a bailout for Ford, Chrysler and GM. Don't worry. President Bush says he'll do it on his own. Jacob Sullum notes this is highly illegal.

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (PDF), which created TARP, authorizes Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson "to purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, troubled assets from any financial institution." Paulson already was stretching the law when he decided to instead purchase stakes in banks (presumably on the theory that shares of their stock constituted "troubled assets"). But a carmaker is not a "financial institution," and loaning it money is not purchasing a "troubled asset." In other words, Bush is acting not only without legal authority but contrary to the stipulations of a law that Congress passed at his behest. That much is familiar. But usually he does this sort of thing under the banner of national security. Is the failure of the Big Three automakers to produce cars that people want to buy part of an Al Qaeda plot?

As I've said many times before, the so-called libertarians and small government conservatives who backed this guy have a whole lot to answer for.