Right-wingers have said that the bailouts their firms received from the Federal Reserve weren't bailouts and weren't with taxpayer dollars.
Can someone please explain how the $1.2 Trillion loaned from the Federal Reserve to hundreds of firms, banks, and manufacturers wasn't a bailout and wasn't guaranteed with taxpayer dollars? A right-wing friend of mine is insisting that the Federal Reserve didn't hand $1.3B in taxpayer money to Harley-Davidson, even though this link by Bloomberg analyzing the Fed bailout said so:
http://www.bloomberg.com/...
He said: "The Fed purchased commercial paper. What you are describing is a collateralized debt obligation. Harley-Davidson sold those CDOs to private investors and were never on the Fed's balance sheet. "
Except the Bloomberg link said that H-D was in debt to the Fed for 197 days. Can anyone please explain how that's not on the Fed's balance sheet or that the Fed didn't loan H-D that cash?