> Do you realize that the 850 billion dollar bank bailout; that sum of money is greater than the entire fifty year running budget of NASA.
I'm not disagreeing with the general sentiment, but I don't like when people mis-use this example. The bank bailout was repaid in full--it was a loan. It didn't in the end cost the government anything.
Do you have some more details on this? I can't find any specific statements anywhere that it was repaid in full, nor even that it was supposed to be repaid; but then again I'm not knowledgeable about this area and could be issuing the wrong search terms.
I don't have any links to the details, but I do recall that the US government put some restrictions in place to its debitors, especially on bonuses. This gave the banks a strong incentive to pay back its loans.
I'm not disagreeing with the general sentiment, but I don't like when people mis-use this example. The bank bailout was repaid in full--it was a loan. It didn't in the end cost the government anything.