Personal responsibility, personal responsibility. Break the dependency on government aid. When the persons in question are poor, mothers or people of color, the federal government’s typically obsessed with testing, punishing and cutting off those who are seen to act irresponsibly with government cash. After all, wasn’t the official name of Welfare Reform the Personal Responsibility Act of 1996?

None of the same rules seem to apply to banks. The latest news is that the Treasury has quietly opened the door to more public bailouts of private bad-lender bankers like Citigroup. While the country was still mostly on holiday, last Friday, the Treasury issued regulatory "guidelines" saying it would take the same steps to prevent the failure of other major institutions, as it did with Citigroup in December."

As taxpayers we should be afraid. Be very afraid.

Back in the fall, we the taxpayer, gave the Citibank, not one but two $20 Billion cash investments and agreed to share losses on $306 billion in toxic loans. If the Treasury’s signed us up to do the same for others, we could soon be out of pocket for the bad business moves of Bank of America, if their purchase of Coutnrywide goes south, or Wells Fargo, if their purchase of Wachovaia turns out to have been a poor idea. Or Morgan Chase, which took on the liabilities of Bear Stearn. 

The Treasury says it will use "extreme discretion" in selecting which banks to rescue. That’s about as reassuring as a cross-my-heart pledge from Bernie Madoff.

It’s hard to find a major bank today that’s not accruing a dodgy portfolio, exposed to bad loans.

Pouring good money after bad is generally frowned on. But that’s exactly what the Treasury’s doing; Literally, committing hundreds of billions - or trillions – of public dollars to prop up companies that are financially dead. And we’re not even demanding accountability in return. Can you tell me where the bail out money’s gone? As for responsibility, Citibank said thanks very much for the bail out back in October. In November, guess what they did--they spent $10 billion to buy a toll road operator --- in Spain.

So much for personal responsibility.