You forget that these banks are going to receive more bailout money with strings this time. I think you would agree if they take the money, they must abide by the rules? Don’t take the money otherwise...Citi is still insolvent and so is AIG...they need more money.
The government was stupid for not attaching strings last time - it was a gift basically. While I'm against all bailouts, I would think that if dot-gov is going to give away tax dollars, they would make some kind of binding stipulation that the money be used for the intended purpose.