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"My main message in today's meeting was very simple: America's banks received extraordinary assistance from American taxpayers to rebuild their industry," Obama said. "Now that they're back on their feet, we expect an extraordinary commitment from them to help rebuild our economy."

Updated: 1:18 p.m.

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Washington (CNN) – On the eve of a White House meeting where President Obama is expected to encourage the nation’s largest lenders to loosen up credit, personal finance expert Suze Orman says Obama should not get all of the blame for how some banks have behaved in the last year.

“It’s not all the president’s fault,” Orman said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.

“You can pass every law that you want. You can try to do anything in the world – give these institutions money - if they don’t help their customers, what are you going to do about it?” Orman told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King.

Related: Obama adviser slams Wall Street

“I think a big part of this problem falls right back to the banks especially those with credit cards,” Orman also told King.

Asked what she would say if she had a seat at Monday’s meeting with the heads of the nation’s largest banks, Orman let loose.

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Washington (CNN) – On the eve of a White House meeting where President Obama is expected to encourage the nation’s largest lenders to loosen up credit, personal finance expert Suze Orman says Obama should not get all of the blame for how some banks have behaved in the last year.

“It’s not all the president’s fault,” Orman said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.

“You can pass every law that you want. You can try to do anything in the world – give these institutions money - if they don’t help their customers, what are you going to do about it?” Orman told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King.

Related: Obama adviser slams Wall Street

“I think a big part of this problem falls right back to the banks especially those with credit cards,” Orman also told King.

Asked what she would say if she had a seat at Monday’s meeting with the heads of the nation’s largest banks, Orman let loose.

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In his Crib Sheet, CNN's John King looks back at Sunday's talk shows and ahead to the topics that will be making news this week.

Pocketbook issues drove the Sunday conversation, with mixed assessment on the question of the economy is at a point where it should cause more holiday season cheer than despair.

There was, at first glance anyway, a bit of a mixed message from two of President Obama’s top economic advisers on the threshold question of whether the recession is over.

“Today, everybody agrees that the recession is over,” Lawrence Summers, the director of the National Economic Council said.

“Of course not,” Council of Economic Advisers Chairwoman Christina Romer said when she was asked if she considered the recession to be over.

To be fair, Summers was speaking from a technical perspective; Romer more from the views of an American who still lacked a job despite some more encouraging recent economic data. Still, the different language will only add to the political debate about the administration’s economic policies.

The president’s Monday meeting with bankers was a hot topic, as was the question of whether a Democratic-controlled Washington would truly take steps next year toward real deficit reduction. And of course there was sharp debate over the evolving Senate health care bill, even with some Democrats saying they needed more proof it would bend the health care cost curve before they could pledge their support.

So let’s get to the Sound of Sunday:

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Treasury Secretary Geithner defended the federal government's bailout of AIG on Capitol Hill Thursday.

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) – Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said on Thursday that he had no choice but to pay top dollar to business partners of troubled insurer AIG to avert a deeper financial panic last year.

Geithner defended regulators' actions to prop up American International Group (AIG, Fortune 500) with $62.1 billion that was essentially funneled to 16 banks that were counterparties to AIG insurance contracts.

"I don't understand why this is so complicated," Geithner told the Congressional Oversight Panel at a hearing on Capitol Hill. "You either prevent default, because default would be cataclysmic – or you don't. If you selectively default on any, the thing will come crashing down."

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Billions of dollars in bailout money received by Bank of America over the past year is now officially back in government hands.

Just a week after announcing plans to repay $45 billion in aid from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), the nation's largest lender said Wednesday it had cut a check to the government for the full amount.

"We owe taxpayers our thanks for making these funds available to the nation's financial system and to our company during a very difficult time," Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis said in a statement.

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WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) - The controversial $700 billion federal bailout program will be extended through Oct. 3, 2010, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said Wednesday.

The Troubled Asset Relief Program will be scaled back and spending limited to newer programs aimed at stopping foreclosures, making loans to small businesses and propping up the credit markets to make loans more available.

"History suggests that exiting prematurely from policies designed to contain a financial crisis can significantly prolong an economic downturn," Geithner wrote in a letter to congressional leaders. "We must not waver in our resolve to ensure the stability of the financial system and to support the nascent recovery that the administration and the Congress have worked so hard to achieve."

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Obama: Bailout for Main Street.'

Washington (CNNMoney.com) - President Obama on Tuesday outlined a broad new proposal to try to spur jobs and give more help to Main Street consumers and businesses.

In a speech at the Brookings Institution, Obama said he wants to give small businesses tax breaks for new hires and equipment purchases. He also wants to expand American Recovery and Reinvestment Act programs and spend some $50 billion more on roads, bridges, aviation and water projects.

Finally, Obama would offer consumers rebates for retro-fitting their homes to consume less energy.

"Even though we have reduced the deluge of job losses to a relative trickle, we are not yet creating jobs at a pace to help all those families who have been swept up in the flood," Obama said in prepared remarks.

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Washington (CNN) – President Obama will propose using $200 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to support creating jobs, White House officials confirmed Monda

The president, in an economic speech before the Brookings Institution on Tuesday, will argue that the money would be well spent by funding projects to build bridges and roads, weatherize homes, and provide other assistance for small businesses as well as the unemployed.
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New York (CNNMoney.com) - The Obama administration is expected to slash the estimated cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program by $200 billion, which could help trim the nation's bloated deficit.

The latest projection, which will be officially unveiled by the White House in the coming days, would cut the long-term cost of TARP to $141 billion, according to a Treasury Department official.

As recently as August, the administration had projected that the long-term costs of running TARP would reach $341 billion.

But that outlook has improved as banks have raced to repay taxpayer funds to the government in recent months. To date, banks have returned some $71 billion to taxpayers, according to the Treasury Department.

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Obama leaning towards support for TARP funds to pay for jobs bill.

Washington (CNN) - President Obama is leaning towards supporting a Congressional Democratic plan to craft a jobs bill by using untapped bailout funds, according to two senior officials familiar with the deliberations.

The officials stressed that no final decision has been made by the president, but they noted he is likely to flesh out more details on the emerging economic package next Tuesday during a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington. This new package is expected to be much smaller than the original $787 billion stimulus plan because of cost concerns at a time of deep government deficits.

Democrats on Capitol Hill and at the White House are considering a jobs package that would include funding for infrastructure projects, direct lending to small businesses and aid to cash-strapped states.

Using the untapped TARP funds has become an attractive option for Democrats, because it would not increase the budget deficit since those funds are already allocated. Republicans have been attacking the president for already sharply increasing federal spending during his first year in office.

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Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama is leaning toward supporting a congressional Democratic plan to craft a jobs bill by using untapped bailout funds, according to two senior officials familiar with the deliberations.

The officials stressed that no decision has been made by the president, but they noted he is likely to flesh out more details on the emerging economic package next Tuesday when he delivers a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

The new package is expected to be much smaller than the previous $787 billion stimulus plan because of cost concerns at a time of deep government deficits.

Democrats on Capitol Hill and at the White House are considering a jobs package that would include funding for infrastructure projects, direct lending to small businesses, and aid to cash-strapped states.

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Washington (CNN) - House Democrats said Thursday they're planning to use money intended to bail out banks, Wall Street and other financial institutions to pay for their jobs bill, a package they aim to vote on by the end of the
year.

"I think the TARP funds are appropriately used to create jobs to reduce the deficit," Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at her weekly news conference, referring to the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

It's unclear if the proposal would tap unused TARP funds or money repaid to the Treasury by banks who got bailout money. Democratic sources say leaders are discussing those details with the Obama administration.

Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have been looking at a series of proposals to address the record unemployment numbers in recent weeks and are now focusing on an initial package that Congress could vote on before leaving for the holiday break.

But the speaker stressed that "this is not the be-all" and said Congress will work on a broader economic proposal early next year.
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Thune: Stop TARP before more damage is done.

(CNN) – For the federal government, this has been the year of spending dangerously.

The danger lies not just in the staggering volume of money being thrown around by the administration and Democrat-controlled Congress. It lies as well in their choices about how that money is being used and their apparent lack of concern that their spending splurge is unsustainable.

Just this past fiscal year alone, which ended in October, the federal government has racked up a staggering deficit of $1.4 trillion, tripling the previous record. And it has done so in part through moves like buying an ownership stake in hundreds of banks, an insurance company, two automakers and numerous other businesses.

A little over a year ago, Congress created the Troubled Asset Relief Program to try to stabilize plummeting financial markets

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Sen. Thune talks to CNN Radio’s Bob Costantini:

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Washington's so-called "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg cautioned lawmakers against extending his authority to the hundreds of other companies that accepted government bailout money.

Speaking before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Wednesday, Feinberg said his recent review of executive pay packages at the seven biggest bailout firms was "justified" given the government's massive stake in these companies.

Appointed by President Obama in June, Feinberg has spent the past five months carefully reviewing pay practices at those companies in order to both protect American taxpayers' investment and position the firms to pay back bailout money as soon as possible.

Still, he indicated that intervening in how banks and other companies that accepted money under the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, would amount to nothing more than "micromanaging."
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Treasury Secretary Geithner said Tuesday that he expects funds paid out to major banks under the TARP program to come back to the federal government 'relatively quickly.'

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Tuesday he expects a wave of banks to soon return government bailout money to taxpayers.

"It will depend on the institution, but for major banks in the country I think that money will come back relatively quickly," he said.

Speaking before the annual meeting of Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association in New York, Geithner offered few details on when those repayments could happen and from which companies.

Lenders that received taxpayer aid under the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, have already returned nearly $71 billion to taxpayers, helped by renewed interest by private investors in the banking industry.

Still, some $134 billion remains invested in hundreds of community and regional banks as well big bailout recipients like Citigroup and Bank of America.
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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) – The Obama administration will soon order the nation's biggest bailed-out companies to drastically cut pay packages for their top executives, a senior administration official confirmed to CNN Wednesday.

Kenneth Feinberg, who was named the White House's pay czar in June, will demand that the seven largest bailout recipients lower the total compensation for their top 25 highest paid employees by 50%, on average, the official told CNN.

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TARP Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky said the government's decision to support bank mergers may have put the U.S. economy more at risk.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The banking system today may be in a more precarious position than it was a year ago, the man charged with overseeing a $700 billion bailout program said Wednesday.

Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general managing the Troubled Asset Relief Program, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday that the government's decision to support bank mergers over the past year may have put the U.S. economy more at risk.

"These banks that were too big to fail are now bigger," Barofsky said. "Government has sponsored and supported several mergers that made them larger and that guarantee, that implicit guarantee of moral hazard, the idea that the government is not going to let these banks fail, which was implicit a year ago, is now explicit, we've said it. So if anything, not only have there not been any meaningful regulatory reform to make it less likely, in a lot of ways, the government has made such problems more likely.

"Potentially we could be in more danger now than we were a year ago," he added.

Earlier in the day, Barofsky issued a scathing report criticizing the Treasury Department for not being transparent enough about how bailout money was being spent. He warned that this could have lasting effects.

"I think this cynicism, this anger, this distrust of government that's born in part from a lack of transparency could have far-reaching ramifications, whether there's a next crisis or when anytime the government is going to call on the American people, the taxpayer, to support necessary programs," Barofsky said.

Obama pay czar Kenneth Feinberg is expected to weigh in on some pay packages in the next 60 days.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Just how much is a rainmaker at a bailed-out bank really worth? Or a senior executive at a recently bankrupt automaker for that matter?

Such questions will soon be a subject of discussion at the White House as the biggest recipients of government aid begin submitting compensation plans for their top 100 employees to the Obama administration's recently appointed pay czar.

Seven companies - AIG, Chrysler, Citigroup, Chrysler Financial, Bank of America, General Motors and GMAC - are due to submit proposed employment contracts for their 25 highest-paid employees Friday. Compensation proposals for the next 75 most compensated employees are due by Oct. 13.

Kenneth Feinberg, the man charged with handling the task, is expected to rule on the first set of pay plans within the next 60 days. That information is due to be made public by Treasury sometime after, although any announcement may not include details of pay packages for individual employees.

Feinberg, a Washington attorney who first entered the public spotlight after overseeing compensation payments to September 11 victims, has already met with the seven firms to discuss some of the employee payment plans.

However, details of those talks have remained mostly under wraps, although there have been indications of a lot of back-and-forth between Feinberg's office and the institutions.
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WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) - The top cop tracking the $700 billion bailout program said Monday that he's concerned federal officials are ignoring his proposals for preventing tax dollars from being wasted or pilfered.

Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general overseeing the Troubled Asset Relief Program, released a 260-page report detailing a long list of concerns about government efforts to prop up hundreds of banks, Wall Street firms and auto companies.

The report criticizes the Treasury Department the most for its unwillingness to adopt some of his recommendations.

Barofsky cites two examples: He wants Treasury to force bailout recipients to keep track of how exactly they are spending TARP funds. He also wants officials to erect a "firewall" to prevent private investment managers - the kind hired to manage and invest taxpayer dollars - from taking advantage of insider knowledge.

"Although Treasury has taken some steps towards improving transparency in TARP programs, it has repeatedly failed to adopt recommendations that SIGTARP believes are essential to providing basic transparency and fulfill Treasury's stated commitment to implement TARP 'with the highest degree of accountability and transparency possible,' " the report stated.

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