The government(and taxpayers I assume) actually made out pretty well on the bailout loans. Considering the government still owns 99% of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, after retaining billions in profits over the last decade and a half.

The primary bailout during the 2008 housing crisis went to homeowners, not to banks through TARP. The secondary bailout was to banks, the Fed bought up trillions of dollars worth of garbage housing assets. That homeowner bailout was never paid back: it damaged the economy in the form of dollar debasement (ie lower purchasing power for everybody holding dollars). The Fed increased its balance sheet 400% in six years, and never looked back. The housing bailout was trillions of dollars, meant to keep that gigantic housing asset pool inflated artificially. We did it again during Covid, with another gigantic consumer bailout.

See: gold at $400 vs gold at $4,000. Aka the destruction of the USD.

TARP was a collection of programs and not a general loan facility.

Paid back with interest but also inflation.