Rep. Darrell Issa: Obama Has “One Of The Most Corrupt Administrations”

Rep. Darrell Issa is set to be the chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in the new GOP-controlled House of Representatives in January, and made the rounds this morning on several news shows. On CNN’s State of the Union, Issa declared although President Obama himself might not be corrupt (as he previously suggested in an appearance with Rush Limbaugh), Obama does have “one of the most corrupt administrations.”

Issa’s rationale:

When you hand out $1 trillion in TARP just before this president came in, most of it unspent, $1 trillion nearly in stimulus that this president asked for, plus this huge expansion in healthcare and government, it has a corrupting effect. When I look at waste, fraud and abuse in the bureaucracy and in the government, this is like steroids to pump up the muscles of waste.

Substitute anchor Ed Henry correctly challenged Issa that TARP was “pushed through by the Bush administration” and wondered whether Issa’s criticism was fair. Issa suggested that “we gave President Bush, and President Obama inherited $800 billion worth of walking-around money with no guidelines so that what was supposed to help financial institutions ultimately bailed out car manufacturers.”

From there the interview got a little testy with Issa and Henry disputing whether Henry accurately quoted him, but one thing is for sure, it seems like Issa’s plans to eliminate alleged corruption means he will be a consistent thorn in Obama’s side.

Watch the clip from CNN below:

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