Remember just a few months ago when the right was whining that the bailouts would cost us $700 billion or more, that the government was talking over these companies to further the reach of socialism, that we would never see a penny of that money. Well, it just aint so. We have been repaid most of the money, we are getting the gubmint out of the companies as fast as possible and the taxpayers will not end up spending anywhere near as much as originally feared. Plus of course we averted the economic disaster Bush engineered.

Yeah, I know the following is just a figment of the imagination of the liberal left wing press. Some excerpts from the WSJ.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304846504575177950029886696.html?KEYWORDS=tarp

Light at the End of the Bailout Tunnel

As momentum grows at companies that looked like zombies just a few months ago to repay taxpayers for lifelines they got during the financial crisis, the projected cost of the bailout is shrinking to just a fraction of previous estimates.

Treasury officials are increasingly optimistic that even American International Group Inc. (NYSE: AIG - News) could be on its own within a year, with officials discussing ways to extricate the government from its 80% stake in the insurer, according to people familiar with the situation. AIG is on track to repay its loan to the Fed through asset sales that will raise $51 billion.

The discussions come as the Treasury is planning to sell its $32 billion stake in Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C - News) and General Motors Corp. moves toward repaying its $6.7 billion government investment and embarking on an initial public offering this summer. Both companies could be free of government strings sometime this year.