Bailout Worst Case Tally: $23.7 Trillion

(CBS)  By CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.

Updated 12:15 p.m. July 21

The man in charge of the report on bailout money defended its findings Tuesday. Special inspector general Neil Barofsky, who oversees the massive Troubled Asset Relief Program, delivered a quarterly report to Congress sharply critical of Treasury's reluctance to better track how federal bailout money is being spent.

He responded to criticism from the Obama administration that the bailout could cost $23.7 under a worst case scenario. He noted that one Treasury Dept. official called the figure "ridiculous."

Barofsky noted that the numbers used for the calculations come from the Treasury Dept. He said if the numbers are inflated, then the governement itself inflated them.

In his report, Barofsky said Treasury has accepted some of his recommendations for greater accountability, but that the department has not taken steps to require all TARP recipients to report on their actual use of funds.

4 p.m. July 20

The chief watchdog over the government's massive bail-out effort has come up with a worst-case scenario price tag for taxpayers ... and it's a stunning figure by any measure.

To give you an idea of how big we're talking, the cost is measured isn't measured in millions or billions ... but trillions.

Here's the breakdown of what could ultimately spent under each agency if all goes wrong. That's according to the oversight report to be presented to Congress Tuesday by bailout Inspector General Neil Barofsky.

• $6.8 trillion from the Federal Reserve

• $2.3 trillion from the FDIC

• $7.4 trillion from Treasury

• $7.2 trillion in other government programs

That adds up to $23.7 trillion dollars.

That's more than the moon shot, the New Deal and World War II combined ... in 2008 dollars. And it's way more than the entire U.S. gross domestic product -- just over $14 trillion.

"If you spent a million dollars every day since the birth of Jesus you wouldn't have spent this much," said U.S. Rep Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who is ranking member of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Domestic Policy.

A Treasury Department spokesman sounded exasperated by the staggering estimate from the Inspector General, calling it "ridiculous," and "inflated." Treasury says less than $2 trillion dollars has been spent so far, and that the total cost will likely never come near $23 trillion dollars.

But even a hint of such daunting possibility is especially touchy at a time when the president is pushing an expensive health care plan that the congressional budget office recently said would go way over the administration's cost estimates.

[Texas-Republican]

Why do all northern democrats want to marry their sisters?

[ffoulkes-2009]

It is just the female norther democrats.

[proudmilvet]

ffoulkes-2009, You are as Relevent to this disscussion as a Trailer Trash Mindset is to intellegent discourse & intellectual curiosity. Just like the rest of the Limbaugh Losers! No doubt you are aching for Sarah Palin to become President. She will become President when Rush Limbaugh is no longer fat & when pigs fly !!

[ffoulkes-2009]

Thank you for that totally irrelevant rant. Just proves more and more what the left is in this country... A bunch of schoolyard bullies who will run and cry mama if met face to face.

[proudmilvet]

EnriquieGonzales, I see you are still living in Limbaugh Land!

[the_keeper03]

"A Bill to Audit the Federal Reserve"

H.R. 1207 & H.R. 2424 Bills to "Audit the Federal Reserve ," and
The Senate companion Bill S. 604, will demand full transparency from the Federal Reserve for the first time in history by removing all restrictions from Government Accountability Office (GAO) audits of the Fed and mandating an audit by the end of 2010.

Help turn up the heat on Congress. Take a few moments to tell your Congressman to support HR 1207, HR 2424 and urge your Senators to Cosponsor S 604. There are currently 271 Cosponsors for HR 1207
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/campaigns/hr1207home.php

Ohio State citizens interested in grass roots LiberTEA activism stop by and join us. http://www.ohiolibertycouncil.com

[idlepugilist]

And what would Uncle Sam being doing right now if McCain had become President? Would McCain have sat idly by and watched America dry up? Come on Repubs, there was mutual support from leading Pres candidates for bail out money. And thank God we have someone telling us the worst case scenario - we'd been getting bullcrap for the previous 8 years.

[melchg07]

MSNBC had at least a little more info on this.

Just like how the whole of the $23 will likely never even come close to being spent.

It stated that about $4.7 Trillion had been dished out and so far of the amount paid out the government had gotten about $1.7 Trillion back.

So we will need to spend about another $20 billion to get to the very bleak outlook this guy states.

Although this year will still be rough and the years to come will be a long road, the growth forecasts for next year have improved. The market is rallying, the housing market will likely bottom out this winter, and the GOP will be sitting there pointing fingers at how the Dems are 'ruining' the country.

Its going to be hysterical watching the 2010 races when we see clip after clip of the Limbaughs of the party stating how they want the dems to fail and how they will ruin the country.

Maybe we'll get lucky and the Libertarians or the Reformist party will rise and push the GOP to actually stick to their ideals of less government, keeping the Government out of the citizens private lives, and fiscal convervatism.

[hungry1968-16]

by AwwCmonWhatIsThis July 20, 2009 9:40 PM EDT
What's the matter Hungry, is seeing the facts presented about your Obamamessiah got you all tongue-tied all of a sudden? Or are you just a coward because there's no way you can defend the man's pathologic sociopath actions?






Rowdy!

Hey - I saw pictures of your house earlier.....

http://www.houston-imports.com/dirty/dirty.html

[joule18]

The cap and trade bill will cost every American household thousands with the additional new taxes, more job losses as small businesses are driven out of business, etc.

The Obamacare, healthcare plan will also cost us all a lot, will penalize people if they do not have insurance (despite ability to pay) and the Congress and Senate are too good for Obamacare and plan to keep their current plan. If you are covered under a private plan and it is cancelled you MUST go to Obamacare. You do not have an option of going to another private care plan. The increase in government employees to enforce and manage it will cost us all a lot.

Democrats were always scaring people that their Social Secuity and Medicare were going to disappear if Republicans were elected. I guess they got fooled big time too.

[joule18]

by GeorgeWHoover July 20, 2009 7:33 PM EDT
Yeah...like all the problems in our country started 6 months ago.

A big part of the problem started when it looked like Obama would win. All of the sudden, the economy is shot and we have to do something now. Emmanuel said "never waste a crisis as it allows you to do things you never thought could get done before." Then Geitner, et al said we had to spend, spend, spend, to get out of this mess and so they passed a stimulus bill no one bothered to read and that has not had one positive effect on the economy except AIG, Goldman Sachs and others who showed a large profit.

Geitner's buddies got a big chunk to pay them back for their support of Obama and for future promises and we all get the shaft. G.E. will get a big chunk for energy related ventures because they own the networks that idolized Obama.

We've been had. All of us.

[ffoulkes-2009]

Why, George, there WAS a stimulus package passed during Bush's last days in office. Passed by a Democrat run Congress.

[ffoulkes-2009]

Wow...calling ME a psycho...thinking you should be looking in a mirror and visiting your therapist on that one.

[CPelzar]

According to libs Bush spending over 8 years was bad and destroyed the country but Obama spending 10 to 20 times more in 6 months is good.

The problem I have is trying to reconcile this idiocy, It gives me a headache.

[ubrew12]

Here is how to reconcile this idiocy:
Bush doubled the national debt in a time of relative prosperity, adding $5.5 trillion to the national debt for no reason at all.

Obama inherited an economy in freefall from Bush. Keynesian logic says use the FED to combat this via interest rate cuts, and only THEN start tapping into the governments reserves to keep employment up and people spending money (consumers are 70% of the economy). Guess what: the FED is tapped out, it has lowered interest rates to zero. Thus, THIS is the proper time to put the government into hock. And only THIS time. The WRONG time to put the government into hock is when the economy is doing fine, and minor recessions can be dealt with by FED interest rate adjustments. Did Reagan follow that advice? Did GW Bush follow that advice? Between them, nearly ALL our $11 trillion national debt was created, during times of relative prosperity. THAT is a crime: THAT money was eventually going to be needed PRECISELY at times like these, when the FED has exhausted its ability to affect the money supply via interest rates. Bottom line: OBAMA IS DOING EXACTLY WHAT HE SHOULD BE DOING, TO STIMULATE AN ECONOMY THAT IS SO FAR DOWN THAT THE FED HAS GIVEN UP. But he (and we) are HORRIBLY hamstrung in this effort by the $11 trillion national debt that Reagan/Bush created almost ENTIRELY BY THEMSELVES, during times of relative prosperity.

And finally, what's being reported is a worst case scenario, assuming everything goes bad. It's like adding up all the people killed in a worst case nuclear engagement: I'm sorry, but that would be everyone on the planet!!! Meanwhile, it was reported today that business profits are looking substantially UP this month. Precisely as the Keynesian medicine would have predicted.