So from what I see above, those bailouts WERE loans and they WERE paid back to the government by those companies
Am I seeing this right?
technically yes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled_Asset_Relief_ProgramTARP recovered funds totalling $441.7 billion from $426.4 billion invested, earning a $15.3 billion profit or an annualized rate of return of 0.6% and perhaps a loss when adjusted for inflation.
like joniboini said though, inflation renders the whole thing bullshit. TARP was just one of multiple programs bloating the fed balance sheet and expanding the money supply far beyond real growth. as a result, we are now paying 20% higher prices on everything despite wages barely rising at all:
https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=100&year1=200810&year2=202002