“Brother, can you spare a billion?” was the most frequently asked question on Capitol Hill as swarming supplicants fought over $700 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds in a scene described by The New York Times as “one of the biggest lobbying free-for-alls in memory.” But with the total federal bailout now more than $2 trillion and counting, taxpayers still don’t know who’s getting their money – or what they’re getting in return. On Sept. 14, the Federal Reserve relaxed collateral standards to the point where, as one industry insider told Chris Carey at Bailoutsleuth.org, “a dead donkey would probably qualify.”

But the Fed has since refused to release a list of the recipients of the emergency loans or the troubled securities it has so far accepted as collateral. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke previously promised Congress that the bailout would be transparent. It isn’t.  On Nov. 7, Bloomberg News filed a lawsuit to force the private central bank to publicly disclose this information after the Fed failed to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request filed in May. Last week, House Minority Leader John Boehner joined a growing chorus demanding a full public accounting.