Totally absurd justification for a bailout coming from the people who will most benefit. When airlines go bankrupt they don't burn the planes. Someone else finances them at a discount. Same thing here: if you have a good idea, a good business model, good people, someone will fund you. Sure, the startup's legal entity may dissolve and the equity holder wiped out, but everything else survives.

The guys at the helm here are making every apocalyptic argument they can think of. No more innovation. China will win. Think of the workers' mortgages. It's all so that they, careless VCs, can get a taxpayer bailout.

If you really think some rank and file programmer is going to suffer for an extended period of time (he/she won't, but just for the sake of argument), then let the Federal Government cut them an unemployment check directly. But any investor, in anything, who loses due to this: suck it up, it's your job to hold the bag.