Bailout Bonanza!

Remember that 700 Billion Bailout? It's a "shade" higher now…

And the shade we're talking about is the size of the one caused by a solar eclipse. The government, hoping you don't know how to add, wants you to believe that they're asking for "only" $700 billion in bailout money from the much-publicized bailout. However, the number now is about 10 times the original asking amount. Again: the number now is about 10 times the original amount—about 8.3 TRILLION dollars. Here's the invoice, as of Monday December 8th:



Not included: a $15 billion bridge loan to the Big Three American automakers.


Some numbers are so big most people just gloss over the number. But taxpayers are on the hook for it, and it is a really big number. Just how much will $8 trillion cover? Look at the federal departments' average annual budgets below, funded primarily with taxpayer dollars:



NASA: $17B

US Postal Service: $34B

Dept of Labor: $10B

EPA: $7B

Dept of Treasury (in a normal year): $12B

Dept of Energy: $24B

Dept of Transportation: $12B

Dept of Justice: $20

Dept of Agriculture: $20

Dept of Interior: $10

Dept of Homeland Security: $120B

Dept of Defense: $515B



Total: $801B



So the money the government has pledged to save our capitalist system is enough to run these government entities for 10 years, and they are giving this money out to a handful of banks and financial entities within the next year or two. There is now a plan to give the Big Three auto companies $15 billion, (small potatoes now) and a pending stimulus package of between 700 billion and 1 trillion dollars. And the automakers are, in my opinion, trying to scare people into believing that they either need bailout money or that they will cease to exist. It's a false either-or choice (but more on that later on).


Our leaders are telling us deficits don't matter. I'm not an economist by any stretch, but to me it doesn't seem to pass the common-sense test. But man, I really hope they're right. I really want their plan to work. Because if it doesn't work, we're really going to be in trouble after we add more to the stratospheric rise of our debt to other countries if said countries lose faith in our ability to pay the debt back.