First of all, let’s recall that not all banks who received funds from the Toxic Assets Relief Program did so voluntarily. The federal government managed to force many institutions to accept billions of taxpayer dollars against their will. In fact, some recipients of funds were doing just fine on their own.

That makes this news from the Wall Street Journal’s Stuart Varney that much more infuriating. The federal government is now refusing to accept repayments from the banks, threatening consequences if they even try. That’s right: Uncle Sam won’t permit financial institutions to give our money back.

I must be naive. I really thought the administration would welcome the return of bank bailout money. Some $340 million in TARP cash flowed back this week from four small banks in Louisiana, New York, Indiana and California. This isn’t much when we routinely talk in trillions, but clearly that money has not been wasted or otherwise sunk down Wall Street’s black hole. So why no cheering as the cash comes back?

My answer: The government wants to control the banks, just as it now controls GM and Chrysler, and will surely control the health industry in the not-too-distant future. Keeping them TARP-stuffed is the key to control. And for this intensely political president, mere influence is not enough. The White House wants to tell ‘em what to do. Control. Direct. Command.

It is not for nothing that rage has been turned on those wicked financiers. The banks are at the core of the administration’s thrust: By managing the money, government can steer the whole economy even more firmly down the left fork in the road.

If the banks are forced to keep TARP cash — which was often forced on them in the first place — the Obama team can work its will on the financial system to unprecedented degree. That’s what’s happening right now.

Here’s a true story first reported by my Fox News colleague Andrew Napolitano (with the names and some details obscured to prevent retaliation). Under the Bush team a prominent and profitable bank, under threat of a damaging public audit, was forced to accept less than $1 billion of TARP money. The government insisted on buying a new class of preferred stock which gave it a tiny, minority position. The money flowed to the bank. Arguably, back then, the Bush administration was acting for purely economic reasons. It wanted to recapitalize the banks to halt a financial panic.

Fast forward to today, and that same bank is begging to give the money back. The chairman offers to write a check, now, with interest. He’s been sitting on the cash for months and has felt the dead hand of government threatening to run his business and dictate pay scales. He sees the writing on the wall and he wants out. But the Obama team says no, since unlike the smaller banks that gave their TARP money back, this bank is far more prominent. The bank has also been threatened with “adverse” consequences if its chairman persists. That’s politics talking, not economics.

Indeed. First the government forces banks to accept taxpayer funds, then uses their acceptance as an excuse to regulate them seven ways to Sunday. When a bank wants to fully pay back the funds with interest, the feds refuse so that they can continue to control the companies on the basis of taxpayer funds being in corporate coffers. It’s an excuse for significantly bigger government, basically.

The fact that this all started under a supposed conservative president is extremely disappointing. Did President Bush have the refusal of paybacks in mind when his administration forced banks to accept funds? Who knows. But it shouldn’t have been done in the first place.

All of that doesn’t excuse President Obama’s actions, of course. You’re responsible for the actions of your administration. We’re witnessing a governmental power grab not seen in many years. Americans need to wake up and realize that very soon.