The gov't spends a lot of money that was never collected from taxpayers - its called running a deficit.
The question here is who was asleep at the wheel to let things get to the point where ONE (ONE!) company filing chapter 11 could have brought the global financial system down and the whole world has to pay now. Non bank financials are not directlty regulated by the Fed, not sure if the SEC are mandated/emowered to protect the wider financial system - although they are an obvious case for detailed scrutiny. Where were the legislators/Gummint over the last 8 or so years where derivatives were increasing in significance? This may be the regulatory black hole issue that Paulson's proposals seeks to address but there need to be some asses kicked somewhere. Maybe the American people can start a campaign of "Boot a snoozy lawmakers ass".
The FED created the housing bubble, more or less, but the BSC fiasco was more of a regulatory problem outside of the FED's control. Lack of regulation actually. The FED was indirectly culpable by providing fuel for the bubble, but that didn't mean BSC had to leverage themselves to such a ridiculous degree with one type of derivative. The blame mostly goes to Bear.
Suze Orman explained the whole thing on Oprah. She said President Bush wanted more minorities to own their own home and live the American Dream. He urged Regulatory Agencies to relax the lending rules so sub prime borrowers could get a loan. Many did. Now they can't pay. So there.
When I was a kid, the saying went, "liar, liar, pants on fire" Bernanke's pants must be burning really hot about now.