Remember way back in September when the president was demanding congressional approval of the $700 billion plan to save America from the next Great Depression?

And Congress itself wrangled with the unnerving concept of using taxpayer money to buy the toxic debt threatening to dry up credit markets? And Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson kept saying that unless the unmarketable debt securities were not removed from the U.S. financial portfolio, we were headed for certain and immediate collapse?

Well, pass the Troubled Asset Relief Program Congress did. And President George Bush signed it into law.

As it's mid-November, let's briefly review how much money has been spent during the past six weeks and for what purpose:

* $250 billion has been used to purchase stock in banks. The initially reluctant banks have used the money to shore up their reserves, pay dividends and acquire weaker rivals, but have not used it to make any new loans. And there is no plan in place regarding how taxpayers ever will recoup this "investment" in the form of future earnings or dividends or even a schedule to repay the cash infusions.

* $40 billion was spent investing further in insurance giant American International Group. This move came on the heels of an $85 billion loan in September, which gave taxpayers almost 80 percent ownership of the struggling company. In early October, the Fed issued another $37.8 billion loan. Then in late October, AIG was given access to $20.9 billion in commercial paper.

That's the complete report. That is all that's been accomplished to restore confidence to the market.

It appears to us to be a little short.

But there's no shortage of companies and industries lining up to get their hands on the remaining $410 billion of the original package. Credit card companies are getting themselves declared banks in order to access the money. Insurance companies are clamoring to be allowed to purchase thrifts in order for them to access the money. The auto industry wants a piece of the pie. Other vital industries are sure to follow. Many lobbyists and members of Congress alike are tripping over each other in the rush to the trough.

And then last week Secretary Paulson tells us the toxic debt won't be purchased at all. All of the credit default swaps, collateralized debt obligations, subprime mortgages, equity tranches and all sorts of derivatives -- whether they be exotic or vanilla, linear or non-linear -- that were causing problems for the banks' balance sheets will remain problems on the balance sheets. There is no more need to determine values for the various financial instruments and remove them from the marketplace.

We're curious as to the shift in philosophy. So, apparently, is Congress. The House Financial Services Committee had Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke testifying on Capitol Hill earlier today to explain their new goal of helping companies that issue credit cards, make student loans or finance car purchases.

Almost in preparation for his visit, Paulson penned a column for this morning's New York Times in which he said: "There is no playbook for responding to turmoil we have never faced."

Actually, we would offer there is no playbook for handing over vast sums of money to any member of the current administration with no congressional oversight. That's the problem. The exuberance of Congress acting so quickly to give the Treasury Department unprecedented powers must give way to a sobering reality check: Congress was had. Treasury is not relieving any troubled assets under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The only silver lining in the $700 billion bailout plan is there are no plans to spend the second $350 billion of it until President-elect Barack Obama and the new Congress are sworn into office. We believe one of the most pressing items of business for the new administration will be to rescind the unfettered control ceded to the Treasury Department in early October. Then, hopefully, Congress can set its sights on those troubling troubled assets. They won't go away on their own.

Editorial by Patrick Lowry

plowry@dailynews.net