TARP worked. The banking system didn't collapse and the banks paid back the loans. With interest, at a profit to the Treasury.
"TARP worked" for who?
The banks got bailed out so the banks felt no pressure to renegotiate with homeowners -- as they would have had to if there had been no bailout. Instead thousands of homeowners lost their jobs and their homes. Further, smart and conservative banks like Wells Fargo who never got themselves into this mess, got thrown into the same pool with their reckless counterparts. The banks have been sitting on the money and not loaning it out, so only the banks benefited from TARP which allowed them to still reap the profits and socialize the losses.
You are using the same argument of "but they ultimately paid it back" as Obama uses for the bailouts --as though it is supposed to vindicate the action that should have never been taken in the first place.
The banking system is collapsing worldwide (including our own) as we speak.
How did TARP do anything but delay the collapse?
TARP (and subsequent bailouts) are a huge tarp that we swept problems under, temporarily ... it didn’t solve any problems. Any time it may have bought us to solve underlying problems hasn’t been used to do so.