TARP is Exhibit A in the government's special treatment of the banking sector, and that vote helped ignite the Tea Party. Many of the politicians who voted for TARP have been replaced by the Tea Party...it was a huge factor in the 2010 election gains by the GOP, and also the purging of GOP moderates in primaries during the same cycle.
TARP will still end up losing tens of billions, but TARP was superseded by far larger (and less transparent) bailouts run through the Federal Reserve. The banks that have repaid TARP only did so because they had other forms of government support, from over a trillion in Fed lending guarantees, to bailouts of their counterparties at AIG, to the bailout of worthless bondholdings at Fannie and Freddie.
And, we aren't out of the woods. Today the banking system is more concentrated and perhaps just as fragile as it was in 2008.
TARP will still end up losing tens of billions, but TARP was superseded by far larger (and less transparent) bailouts run through the Federal Reserve. The banks that have repaid TARP only did so because they had other forms of government support, from over a trillion in Fed lending guarantees, to bailouts of their counterparties at AIG, to the bailout of worthless bondholdings at Fannie and Freddie.
And, we aren't out of the woods. Today the banking system is more concentrated and perhaps just as fragile as it was in 2008.