Should the Governement step in?

Given the economy of how it is, the government has stepped in several times to help stimulate the economy. Earlier this year, the US Governement mailed out almost $100 billion in tax rebate checks which did absolutely nothing for our economy. If anything, the market rapidly declerated more shortly after the summer.
Over the past several weeks, the US Government has been implementing a plan to stimulate our economy. Many financial institutions have sufferred substantial losses from the market turmoil and thus Congress recently approved a $700 billion bailout plan. Of the $700 billion, $250 will be injected into the large banks such as JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs in the form of preferred stock. The other half of the money will go into the smaller US banks. The purpose of this is for the government to invest in the US financial institutions which according to them are claiming should not be an expense but rather an investment in the long term. In my opinion, it is the taxpayer who will be paying for this. I oppose the idea of the government stepping in and taking over the capital markets. Over time, the market will turn itself around and the idea of governmental aid will only harm the US economy in the long run. It's amazing how the government stepped in to help out the US businesses- starting with Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, AIG, the tax rebate check, and now the $700 billion stimulus package. Our government doesn't even have the funds to cover all this. The Central banks only have around $40 billion. That's not enough to cover the FDIC in the banks. That's not even enough to buy Merrill Lynch.
The market will dip more for at least another year and possibly couple of more years until it turns itself around. The government should let the capital markets handle its own crisis.