Four Reasons to Oppose the Bush-Obama Request for the Rest of the $700 Billion Bailout By David Sirota

President Bush -- at the request of President-elect Barack Obama -- Tuesday formally requested the next truckload of Wall Street bailout cash.

The question is whether Congress should agree to this request or not, and I am against it for four reasons:

REASON 1: Treasury Says It Doesn't Need the Money

The New York Times reports, "The first $350 billion in bailout money has been fully allocated, and the Treasury says there is no urgent need for more." On top of this, the first $350 billion has been a complete disaster -- as the bailout's congressional oversight panel reports, there has been almost no transparency or even basic proof that the bailout is working to do anything other than subsidize bank consolidation and executive bonuses.

REASON 2: "New" Conditions Are Filled With Loopholes & Omissions

It's not clear that the conditions Democrats are talking about placing on the second batch of money are strong enough -- or, in some cases, even real.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., has put forward legislation that would impose some strings on the money -- and his legislation draws a nice comparison to the auto bailout. Essentially...