The Treasury Department said today it has lowered the projected cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program by $11.4 billion to $105.4 billion. We're still in the hole on the auto companies and AIG - and there's that bailout of Fannie and Freddie - but we'll take what we can get.

In August, the cost estimate of TARP stood at $341 billion. The revised projection is as of March 31 and comes primarily from the increase in Citigroup's stock during the first quarter. The Treasury marked its 7.7 billion Citi shares at $4.05, or 80 cents over the price at which they converted their preferred shares to common equity. Citi shares are trading around $3.78 today.

The cost of the government’s auto bailout was also revised downward as the the industry has improved and its AIG stake rose $2.9 billion in the first quarter.