This afternoon, the White House did the only thing it could possibly think of short of groveling – they sent out their press secretary to complain that banks, which admitted openly they would do nothing but sit on government cash – are sitting on government cash:

WASHINGTON (AP) — An impatient White House served notice Tuesday on banks and other financial companies receiving billions of dollars in federal help to quit hoarding the money and start making more loans.

“We’re trying to do is get banks to do what they are supposed to do, which is support the system that we have in America. And banks exist to lend money,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said.

Banks exist to lend money, she says! You think they’re supposed to be repositories of savings, you fools? GET OUT THERE AND LEND!

Gah.

Memo to White House: even Hank Paulson admitted that he knew darn well this cash was going to be sat on, or used to enable the banks to cannibalize their smaller peers:

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has said the money would be used by banks to rebuild their reserves so that they would resume more normal lending practices — a crucial ingredient to breaking through a debilitating credit clog that is hurting the national economy and threatens to bring about a deep recession. More recently, though, Paulson said the money could be used by banks to buy other banks to make them both stronger to weather the financial storms.

As Erik Skiles pointed out to me, this is an announcement that would have been much more entertaining (and possibly more effective) if delivered by The Rock. Also, while I’m pointing things out to the White House – if the Republicans had any chance at all of carrying Ohio, pretty sure the PNC buyout of National City that was enabled by the TARP is going to put the final nail in the coffin for them there. This bailout is closely linked enough to the current administration that all those National City layoffs are going to send Ohio voters to the polls for Obama in droves.