Over objections of the Senate and the majority of American citizens, President Bush facilitated a $17.4 billion loan of taxpayer’s money to Detroit’s troubled automakers today. Since Congress did not approve new funding for the automakers’ bailout, the president tapped the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) fund for $13.4 billion of the loan. The remaining $4 billion will still require legislative approval. Ford says it doesn’t need the loan, so GM and Chrysler will apparently split the take. To put the amount in perspective, the state of Minnesota collects about $17 billion per year from all tax and fee revenue sources. Enough tax money to run the entire state of Minnesota for a year is being doled out to two private companies that are unable to stand on their own feet. With these companies teeting on the edge of the abyss, it's entirely possible that these loans will never be repaid.

TARP was established to bailout Wall Street. A $700 billion fund of non-existent money was established to prop up failing financial corporations. Initially the president signaled that he opposed using this fund to bailout the car manufacturers. Following the defeat of the bailout bill in the Senate, the president has changed his tune, saying, "The only way to avoid a collapse of the American auto industry is for the executive branch to step in. My economic advisers believe that such a collapse would deal an unacceptable blow to hardworking Americans far beyond the auto industry."

The bailout "loan" comes with strings attached. Primarily, that the loan will be recalled if the automakers aren’t "viable" by March 31st. In essence, the president has said that the car manufacturers can not be allowed to fail, for dire consequences will ensue – unless they are still foundering this spring, in which case, it’s evidently OK to allow the collapse and ensuing economic Armageddon. Makes perfect sense.

The auto bailout is just the latest in a seemingly endless parade of corporate handouts, taking money from the pockets of hard working men and women, their children and their children’s children to cover the bad decisions of millionaires and billionaires. Current federal bailout commitments total $8.7 trillion. The entire federal budget is $3 trillion and the bailouts now represent nearly 2/3 of the nations entire GDP of $13.1 trillion.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the total value of the bailouts undertaken by the federal government exceeds inflation-adjusted spending for all American wars. The American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined cost $7.2 trillion in today’s dollars. Even much maligned spending on the current Iraq war has to date totaled only $648 billion, a figure that pales next to the extraordinary deficit spending for corporate welfare. Throw in all spending for the Louisiana Purchase, the New Deal, the Marshall Plan and NASA, and you still haven’t topped the bailout spending spree of 2008.

America’s present debt equals about $37,000 per person. Representative Price of Georgia said, "By bailing out automakers without real reform or long-term solutions, we are only protracting uncertainty and putting billions of tax dollars at grave risk. It is now clear that the creation of TARP was a rueful mistake which has failed to provide urgent market stability, yet has put our country perilously in debt for the foreseeable future."