TARP Repayments Give Lie To Attacks On Government Intervention

Ten major banks are repaying $68 billion in bailout funding to the US Treasury.

So will the Right concede that government intervention can actually work, and provide temporary backstopping in true emergencies?

I doubt it: the Right needs to argue from its isolationist, ideological perch that all intervention is bad - - such as giving GM breathing room - - to press the attack, now led by Rush Limbaugh and New Gingrich, that Pres. Barack Obama is failing and ruining America.

Truth is that most Americans recognize that Obama inherited a huge mess, and that his success is in the public interest because his success will mean that the economy is recovering.

It took years for Wall Street and the Bush administration to push the economy into a hole, and it will take a long time for recovery to be replaced by stability, then sustainable growth.

Putting $68 billion back into the Treasury is a sign that we're on our way.