1 gallon of ethanol for $1.75:
www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080423/BUSINESS01/804230389&s=d&page=3#pluckcomments

gas w/o ethanol would be $3.70/g instead of $3.25/g (Merrill Lynch advisor):
domesticfuel.com/category/price/

-housing bill-
two main clauses:
1. lowered principal, to compensate for falling house prices
2. fixed interest rate, vs. hybrid adjustable
money.cnn.com/2008/05/15/real_estate/Dodd_Shelby_announcement/

hr 634-- 500,000 would benefit:
www.wsws.org/articles/2008/may2008/hous-m21.shtml

Foreclosure Prevention Act-- $2 billion to homeowners, $6 billion to corporations:
www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/business/16bailout.html

newshour--barney frank interview:
www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june08/housing_05-08.html

"doing nothing would have caused a more prolonged recession (thus not benefiting tax-payers in the long run)"

-eligible mortgages may be reduced to 85% of appraised home value, e.g. a $100,000 loan will only have to be paid back as $85,000

to the question of why should the defaulters be bailed out, and liability be placed on tax-payers, the answer is it benefits everyone, including tax-payers, because it maintains status quo, a functioning society where those tax-payers need people to go in to work, maintain productive role in society.