CBO lowers TARP’s price tag to taxpayers

{mosads}The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) estimates TARP will eventually cost $63 billion, primarily due to higher expectations for how much the housing relief programs will cost.

While the bank bailout has become widely reviled among both political parties, the actual portion of TARP devoted to banks has turned the government a profit. As of the end of August, the government’s holdings in bailed-out banks, which have been gradually resold back into the market, have turned a $21 billion profit, according to the Treasury Department.