WASHINGTON -- A special inspector general overseeing government efforts to bail out portions of the private sector said Tuesday the U.S. so far has committed nearly $2.98 trillion toward stabilizing financial companies and rescuing domestic auto makers. The figure reflects spending on the U.S. Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program, as well as funding for various programs from the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., special inspector general Neil Barofsky planned to tell the Senate Finance Committee. It doesn't include costs for working-capital loans to General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC or a new government auto-warranty-guarantee program announced Monday. Such a large commitment of funds in such a short time "will inevitably attract those seeking to profit criminally," Mr. Barofsky said in a testimony prepared for a committee hearing Tuesday. "If, by percentage terms, some of the estimates of fraud in recent government programs apply to the TARP programs, we are looking at the potential exposure of hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money lost to fraud," he planned to tell lawmakers. In a separate report Tuesday, the Government Accountability Office said Treasury alone has announced plans for as much as $667.4 billion in TARP funds. The office, however, noted that all of those funds haven't yet been disbursed and estimated actual expenditures for programs announced thus far would likely reach $590.4 billion. That estimate would leave the TARP with just $109.6 billion, less than the $134.5 billion Treasury said it estimated remained in the fund. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123851108664173877.html You have to fully digest this comment! LMAO !
Wonder how much better it would be, if we had a small government (the libertarian view) with no debt, and thus very low taxes, let capitalism weed out the losers, had committed $0 to bailouts, etc. Imagine if the federal deficit were always zero and the federal govt always had to balance its books every year. Imagine not having $500 billion in annual debt servicing in the budget.