You confuse TARP money spent by the government with total money spent by the government. I said they've spent a Trillion, it's probably more than that. Of the 700 billion Tarp, 454 billion is gone, but it is basically all commited so I call that spent. ...
The auto industry, AIG and other struggling recipients of the government's $700 billion Wall Street bailout will make it "extremely unlikely" that taxpayers will receive a full return on their investments, says a new report by the Treasury Department's independent watchdog.
AIG, which has received about $180 billion in TARP funds, is slowly returning to financial stability, according to the report. But AIG has missed three TARP dividend payments to Treasury as of Sept. 30. If the company misses a fourth payment Nov. 1, Treasury will have the right to elect directors to the AIG board.
Treasury, as of Sept. 30, had announced commitments to spend $636.9 billion of the $699 billion maximum available for the purchase of troubled assets under TARP as authorized by Congress.
So far about $454.3 billion in TARP money had been expended through the 10 implemented programs to provide support to financial institutions and markets, the automobile industry and homeowners, Mr. Barofsky's office says.
If I bolded correctly, your quote only mentions the banks. TARP is $700-750B, the stimulus is $750B, and there's another T-acronym program or two out there with a $700+B figure on it. Your own copy/paste text says the full TARP number is $699B so where do you get Trillions? Keeping the banks from failing doesn't include bailing out auto cos, homeowners, etc. And unfunded committments mean nothing has been borrowed/printed; a potential liability yes, but there's also the potential from a cash flow perspective to fund those committments out of dividend payments and pay backs.
