The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) may have only approved $700 billion of taxpayer funds to kick start the economy, but the total of taxpayer funded bailouts is $3.5 trillion and growing!

The breakdown goes as follows:

  • $700 billion in approved TARP funds
  • $300 billion for Hope Now (new mortgage workout deals)
  • $110 billion in AIG loans that it may never pay back
  • $200 billion for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
  • $140 billion in new tax breaks for banks.  See the Washingtonpost article for details.
  • $2 trillion in emergency Fed loans (so far!)

On top of that nearly $3.5 trillion, there are also significant and unquantifiable taxpayer incurred costs for government funded FDIC insured account bailouts, the Bear Sterns rescue guarantees, the government money market guarantees, and likely many more line items on the way.  And let’s not forget that the government is now on the hook for all the bad debt obligations for Fannie and Freddie, aka Phony and Fraudy!

And to top it all off, president elect Obama-san is now calling for a new $850 billion unfunded (new debt funded) stimulus plan.  And the 2009 budget deficit may even hit a whopping $2 trillion.

Congratulations, Obama-san.  You are on track to accomplish the impossible by making Bush’s near doubling of the national debt look insignificant!