If General Motors is going bankrupt, why are we still pumping taxpayer money into it? Beats me, but now the word is that GM is well on its way to bankruptcy and the government (that's us, taxpayers) will have to kick in $77 billion to help that bankruptcy go smoothly.

Here's how it supposedly will work: GM will file bankruptcy around June 1. The type of bankruptcy it will file won't mean that GM will be out of business. Rather, it will restructure (hopefully with a business model that is actually sustainable). In addition to the $13.4 billion GM has already gotten from the taxpayers, another $77 billion would be added to the tab.

$7 billion of that would go toward a new GM which is basically all the "good" parts of it. All the "bad" parts would be sold off, but $70 billion would be needed from taxpayers to fund health care obligations and facilitate the liquidation. $77 billion sounds like an awfully big price to pay for a near-worthless business.

All this bailout madness is crazy. Our government keeps throwing good money after bad, and it's our money they're spending. We should not be funding businesses that don't have a chance of surviving. In fact, government really shouldn't be funding or controlling businesses at all. Let the free market do its work, because no government has ever been all that good at running anything.