Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Thursday the government’s $700 billion bailout program will end “as soon as we can,“ and that part of it will be used to lower the record deficit.

America is at its best when it is a land of equal opportunity for all. The United States of America should be a level playing field for everyone to achieve to the best of his or her talent, hard work, and creativity, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, or gender—a meritocracy. Common sense—and indeed history—shows that people and countries prosper with the promotion of initiative, personal empowerment, and individual and family responsibility, rather than sapping dependence on a nanny government. Clearly, the best social program is a job.

The possible collapse of a key lender is sending panic through the retail industry, threatening to hang up deliveries of back-to-school clothing and other merchandise and throw holiday ordering into disarray. A bankruptcy filing by CIT Group would hurl more trouble at an industry already hammered by the worst spending slump in decades.

A bankruptcy at CIT Group Inc., the 101-year-old lender to small businesses that itself is running short of cash, may hurt insurers that invested in the company’s debt, including Henrico County-based Genworth Financial Inc.

Banks have been eager to pay back bailout money almost since the moment they accepted it. Now the government is deciding which banks can return the cash—at the risk of setting up a system of winners and losers. The Treasury gets to determine which banks can quit the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, loosening the federal grip on the banking sector eight months after Congress approved the rescue package. An announcement could come as early as today.

Regulators trying to stabilize the financial system could unwittingly roil it when they explain their methods today for stress testing the largest banks. Officials will privately begin telling the largest 19 financial institutions how they performed. But investors will be scrutinizing the test methodology for clues about which banks are in trouble.

A Chapter 11 filing might be the most effective way to overhaul General Motors Corp., but that doesn’t mean the sweeping changes that are possible in bankruptcy court are going to be quick or easy. GM CEO Fritz Henderson said yesterday that the company still would prefer to restructure out of court as it tries to prove it can survive to repay its $13.4 billion in government loans, but he conceded that bankruptcy protection is more probable than in the past.

General Motors Corp. has prepared a new proposal for bondholders. It aims to satisfy the government’s demand for much deeper givebacks from creditors, and the company also is working on a new concession package for the United Auto Workers, according to two people briefed on the plans. The offer to the bondholders, who hold roughly $28 billion in unsecured GM debt, will exceed a previous government requirement that GM swap two-thirds of its unsecured debt for company stock, one source said.

The Obama administration’s decision to effectively convert much of the U.S. auto industry into a subsidiary of the federal government illustrates the worst aspects of the bailout mentality. Billions in taxpayer dollars continue to flow into troubled industries—and government control of those businesses is expanding faster than the budget deficit. We’re pleased to see that the administration is considering bankruptcy for GM. But it’s hard not to wonder if that time-tested approach for dealing with insolvent companies should not have been applied sooner to automakers—and to at least some of the failing financial giants.

President Barack Obama asserted unprecedented government control over the auto industry yesterday by bluntly rejecting turnaround plans by General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.

Rep. Eric I. Cantor, R-7th, the No. 2 Republican in the House of Representatives, is receiving campaign contributions from political action committees controlled by companies receiving federal bailout money. NBC News and Newsweek have reported that in January and February, Cantor campaign committees accepted $2,500 from Citigroup, $5,000 from Bank of America, $1,500 from Chrysler and $2,500 from American Express.

The House Republican leader says the automaker has avoided making tough choices in the past 30 years and needs to demonstrate that the money it receives can be paid back.

A new definition of desperate times: Even as the government threw a stunning new $30 billion lifeline to American International Group yesterday, the beleaguered insurance giant confirmed it had lost more than twice that much, $62 billion, in a three-month period. And many more billions of federal dollars are almost sure to be shoveled into the company for a simple reason: Officials fear that its collapse would cripple financial markets in the U.S. and around the world.

The government yesterday moved toward dramatically expanding its ownership stakes in the nation’s banks—with Citigroup, the struggling titan of the industry, apparently at the top of the list. Wall Street responded as it has with the rollout of other plans to fix the financial crisis. Stocks took a big drop and sent the Dow Jones industrials to their lowest level since 1997.

Richmond-based First Market Bank has received $33.9 million from the U.S. Treasury as part of the government’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. First Market was among 28 banks to receive a total of $238.6 million in the latest batch of payments, bringing the government’s total infusion in U.S. banks to $195.6 billion. “The TARP funds are meant for healthy banks,“ said Katie Gilstrap, spokeswoman for First Market. “First Market has a very conservative credit culture. We have never been involved in subprime or risky loans.“