Just when I thought I saw a glimmer of hope...

*sigh*
OK. Glimmer of hope is way WAY overstating it. However, I was beginning to have, uhhh, positive thoughts about how neat it was that congress didn't rubber stamp the bailout as ordered. Instead they thought about it for 2 days and added provisions that would attach some strings and maybe, just maybe, turn a profit for the government. (Of course they would have wasted that profit, but, you don't need me to tell you that.)
Then, on the drive home, my reliable source for generally mind blowing news (Marketplace (APM)) did a story, Where's this bailout cash coming from?, that brought my childlike fantasies about a government that is efficient to their knees. Here are some verbatim key phrases to sum 'er up for you:
...the Fed started this crisis with an $800 billion war chest. ...
...Now that war chest is almost wiped out. ...
...last month without hardly any public debate...
...Since then, the Treasury has forked over half a trillion dollars.
...that's half a trillion you haven't heard about before. ...
...if the Fed doesn't get paid back, the Fed can't pay the Treasury back and U.S. taxpayers will end up on the hook. ...

While we were all wondering about $0.75 TRILLION dollars and whether or not we should trust the financial industry with it, they were already giving them $0.5 TRILLION without letting anyone know. WE ARE ALREADY $1.25 TRILLION INTO THIS MESS!

THIS is whyipaytaxes.