WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The Treasury Department announced a series of proposals to reduce its footprint in various areas of the markets, based on its expectation that the economy is getting better, according to a Treasury official on Thursday. The official added that Treasury expects to receive roughly $50 billion in bank bailout repayments within the next 12 to 18 months, which demonstrates how the economy is recovering. It also plans to take back its so called "place holder" request for $750 billion in additional bank rescue funds for which it made as part of a congressional budget request. The Treasury official also said various Fed liquidity programs, such as the Term Auction Facility, are seeing major reductions in usage. "We are starting to pull back on certain programs," he said. However, Treasury still plans to move forward on a series of other programs, such as efforts to help homeowners modify mortgages, as well as a plan to bring together public and private funds to buy toxic assets from financial institutions. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/newsviewer Damn criminals saved the economy with a more than dubious M2M change and now announcing arrogantly that the toxic asset program is not "VITAL" to "THE MARKET".