A series of recent reports, from the Journal to the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP), have offered staggering stats on the lobbying dollars paid out by banks, automakers, and other companies getting bailout money under the Troubled Assets Relief Program.

But all these numbers can be a bit befuddling in the aggregate. Is it really true, as the CRP states, that companies benefiting from the bailout have received a 258,449% return on their lobbying investments? Not really -- because lobbying expenditures are not broken down by topic area, there's no way to determine what portion of companies' K Street spending was dedicated to securing a slice of the bailout pie.

(For true TARP geeks, here's a great rundown of the cavalcade of legislation that sparked the lobbying interest of bailout participants.)

So what can we conclude about lobbying spending by bailed-out banks?

Well, Wall Streeters claim that the taxpayer money they received isn't being directly used to lobby Congress, but until the passage of TARP transparency bills like the one I mentioned yesterday, there'll be no way to know for sure.

We do know this: Between October 1, when the Senate passed the first bailout, and the year's end, the top 20 TARP recipients have spent $7.86 million on lobbying. This is the same top 20 group that actually cut back on lending during the first part of this year. (Thanks to TPM intern Chris for his help with data collection.)

Check out a full-scale version of the chart right here. That fourth-quarter bank lobbying bonanza was crucial to amassing support for the second half of the bailout, which Congress released to President Obama last month. And you should be proud -- you almost certainly helped foot the bill!