Taxpayers Still Footing TARP Bailout Bill

Robert Miller, Chairman of the board of directors at AIG, takes part in the panel discussion "Lessons From the Great Recession: How Businesses Survived and Now Look to Thrive." Taxpayers are getting some payback on their bailout of one of the world's biggest insurance companies: AIG.

It's a drop in the bucket compared to all the money that was sent out the door through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), but still, American International Group is repaying $972 million to the U.S. treasury this week.

That brings AIG's outstanding balance from the 2008 bailout down to roughly $68 billion. That's out of the $182 billion ploughed into the company at the height of the financial crisis.

The government still owns 77 percent of AIG's common stock - and don't expect it to sell any time soon. Because AIG stock has lost nearly half of its value this year - the expectation is those stock sales will not resume until shares go back up again.

So you're still out $68 billion bucks from AIG. Unfortunately the insurance giant is one of many that still owe Uncle Sam from their bailout deals.

According to the watchdog website Propublica - of the more than $580 billion spent so far, less than $278 billion has been paid back.

The biggest culprits are of course Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The mortgage twins have pocketed nearly $170 billion since 2008. The government has only recovered $28 billion.

The automakers also got huge handouts - with the exception of Ford. GM, which ended up in bankruptcy despite it's $80 billion bailout, has paid back about a half of its money.

The government wrote off over a billion dollars in the Chrysler bailout. And while the big banks have paid back on TARP - some smaller financial companies are still in the red.

Ally Financial - an arm of General Motors - has returned about a quarter of its $16 billion dollar handout. And Regions - has barely put a dent in the money it was given!

It's been nearly three years and companies are still not fulfilling their end of the bailout bargain and the taxpayers are the ones paying the price! As usual!

As is the case with the bungled stimulus money, more strings needed to be attached to such gifts - and much more follow-up conducted.

This isn't Monopoly money the White House and Congress can spend at will. They're playing with our hard-earned money. I watch where I invest, and so should they!