October 23, 2008 10:11AM 

# The Bailout: Secret Payments? 

By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) 

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From the [Wash​ing​ton​Watch​.com blog](http://www.washingtonwatch.com/blog/2008/10/23/bailout-scandal-undisclosed-sums-paid-to-ny-mellon-bank/):

> Just two weeks after the passage of the bailout bill, and one day after a Treasury Department official declared, “we are committed to transparency and oversight in all aspects of the program,” the Treasury Department began covering up the amount it would pay to New York Mellon Bank to act as a financial agent in the bailout.

Spending $700,000,000,000.00 in taxpayer money is not business as usual. And hiding the terms of government contracts shouldn’t be business as usual anyway.

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