Bailout costs more than Marshall Plan, Louisiana Purchase, moonshot, S&L bailout, Korean War, New Deal, Iraq war, Vietnam war, and NASA's lifetime budget -- *combined*!

Bailout costs more than Marshall Plan, Louisiana Purchase, moonshot, S&L bailout, Korean War, New Deal, Iraq war, Vietnam war, and NASA's lifetime budget -- *combined*!

Crunching the inflation adjusted numbers, we find the bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures – combined:

• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion

TOTAL: $3.92 trillion

Please I don't ever want to hear anything ever again about government spending from anyone in any party. You have, all of you, lost any shred of respectability on this matter. (Note to Ron Paul, you are exempted from these proceedings as you have voted against every spending bill since Jesus was a Corporal.)

Complaints from conservatives about funding the arts? Boo. Frickin'. Hoo.

Complaints from liberals about military funding? Cry me a river.

This bailout is bottomless and it is perfectly clear what's going on. Corporate America is being funded by the people (like me) who are going to get laid off in the process. These companies should be required to cut senior staff positions or salaries of same in direct proportion to the salaries of the people they eliminate. The CEO's of the Big Three can forgo any compensation direct, or indirect if they want to keep their jobs. They have millions upon millions and when you're flying to DC (in a private jet mind you) with your begging bowl for uncounted billions to propagate a broken business model.

I'm veering into populism here but the idea that you're going to fix this by corporate funding is lunacy. According to the latest estimates the bailout is going to exceed 6 trillion dollars. That's $3270 for every man, woman and child in the US.

Anyone who thinks that every industry in the nation isn't lining up for a handout is not paying attention. TV networks are crying poverty. Newspapers, steel companies, airlines, cities and even states.

This massive vacuum of cash getting hoovered up by Big Business is going to help a few people but screw everyone. This is a very very bad precedent and one Obama will be saddled with upon inauguration. Will he tell them no when they come back for more?

Where are the strings that should rightly come with the money? We bailed out the airline industry without debate and hardly a mention on the news in the wake of 9/11. Does anyone think anything has changed in that industry? Have they fixed their poor business model? Is there service better? Prices? Choice of destinations? Surely the addition of TSA has helped us all feel safer? They're awesome at preventing all sorts of horrible terrorists from harming us and smuggling guns and drugs into the country, right?

I give up. I'm getting a government job. I'm gonna get in there like a tick and go all slovenly and waste taxpayer money with the bare bottom level of competency and productivity. It's the only industry that's not going overseas or bankrupt.