Here is a summary from a study on the cause of the crisis and its actual cost.
The savings and loan crisis of the 1980s and early 1990s produced the greatest collapse of U.S. financial institutions since the Great Depression. Over the 1986–1995 period, 1,043 thrifts with total assets of over $500 billion failed. The large number of failures overwhelmed the resources of the FSLIC, so U.S. taxpayers were required to back up the commitment extended to insured depositors of the failed institutions. As of December 31, 1999, the thrift crisis had cost taxpayers approximately $124 billion and the thrift industry another $29 billion, for an estimated total loss of approximately $153 billion. The losses were higher than those predicted in the late 1980s,when the RTC was established, but below those forecasted during the early to mid-1990s, at the height of the crisis.
“So you had to go to a hit piece from a liberal newspaper to get the incorrect use of the word bailout and a fictional statement of the cost.”
So here is a hit piece from the FDIC. Here is an excerpt from the FDIC papers.
http://www.fdic.gov/bank/historical/s&l/
1989—President Bush unveils S&L bailout plan in February. In August, Financial Institutions Reform Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA). FIRREA abolishes the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and FSLIC, switches S&L regulation to newly created Office of Thrift Supervision. Deposit insurance function shifted to the FDIC. A new entity, the Resolution Trust Corporation is created to resolve the insolvent S&Ls.