Without going into a long dissertation on the flow of funds between the government, TARP, and the financial institutions that got the money, consider just this...

• The feds injected tens of millions of dollars into AIG, the big insurance company.
• AIG, after paying it's own people millions in bonuses, arguing that such compensation is necessary to retain those people in the employ of the company, proceeded to make payments on the credit default insurance policies they had underwritten, all contractual and legal obligations to make payment to the purchasers of those insurance policies.
• $13.8 billion in such payments went to Goldman Sachs, who had purchased the policies from AIG in order to limit their risk on exposure to certain sub-prime asset based exposures.
• The payments to Goldman Sachs were made during the first quarter of 2009.
• At the end of the second quarter of 2009, Goldman Sachs reported record profits of $3.4 billion.
• At the same time, Goldman Sachs announced their intention to pay bonuses to their employees that averaged $700,000 for each and every employee of the firm.

We...all of us taxpayers,,,are really generous people, aren't we? I wonder if we'll get even a single thank you note from any of the employees of Goldman Sachs who will be treated so munificently for their superb work for the firm?