In a post last week, I talked about the total lack of transparency in the US Government's bank bailout package. The upshot is that it's likely to mean taxpayers' money is going down the drain.

Now the Congressional Oversight Panel has put out a report showing that the bank bailout program short-changed US payers $78 billion. For every $100 spent by Treasury, it took back assets worth just $66.

Mind you, that would be a conservative estimate, it's probably a lot worse because a lot of those assets would be worthless. The report is particularly critical of the US Treasury's ridiculous (and lazy) "one-size-fits-all" approach to the problem and complete lack of rigor.

The use of standardized documents likely contributed to Treasury's ability to obtain speed of execution and wide participation, but it meant Treasury could not address differences in credit quality among various capital infusion recipients through variations in contractual terms governing the investments or impose specific requirements on a particular recipient that might help insure stability and soundness."

The US taxpayer is already reeling from the recession. But the bailout package has left them even more out of pocket. They can thank Henry Paulson for that.