Your numbers are wrong. Sure, loan guarantees and lines of credit might have hit the multi-trillion dollar mark. But loans != money the government loses. The ne

Your numbers are wrong. Sure, loan guarantees and lines of credit might have hit the multi-trillion dollar mark. But loans != money the government loses. The net cost of the bailouts is at most $150 billion [1]. And that number is assuming the every group that still owes the government money goes bankrupt or defaults right now. So that number is higher than the number that we'll see several years from now, because there are still loans/equity stakes outstanding that are being paid off today, with interest (or, in the case of equity stakes, are going to be sold off in the future). Meanwhile, major entitlement spending (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, CHIP) accounts for 44% of the entire federal budget (total entitlements accounting for 62%) [2]. Total entitlements amount to $2 trillion in 2012, and increasing significantly faster than inflation every year. [1] http://projects.propublica.org/bailout/ http://projects.propublica.org/bailout/ [2] http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/10/federal-spending-by-the-numbers-2012 http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/10/federal-spe...