A cool $85 billion ought to be enough to save any company. That is what the government loaned AIG (NYSE: AIG), the beleaguered insurance company. The money is supposed to be paid back and the Fed got an 80% interest in the firm.

But the $85 billion did not cut it. Yesterday, the government had to come up with another $37.8 billion. According to The Wall Street Journal, "The move, which comes less than a month after the Federal Reserve agreed to bail out the giant insurer, raises questions about whether the government will need to keep injecting money into the troubled company."

It actually raises a much bigger issue than that one. If AIG cannot get by on the $85 billion it got just last week, how much worse is its position getting and how fast? Since AIG is only one of many large financial companies with problems, why isn't it fair to ask whether the Treasury's $700 billion bailout program will be enough?

The AIG trouble shows that the government's aid to the financial system is a slippery slope. US taxpayer money goes into a failing system. As the credit crisis gets worse, the Fed and Treasury feel the need to double down. Gamblers and investors who take that path often find out that they lose everything, their initial investment and money that came later to protect it.

If AIG needs more money, it is a good bet that the rest of the system will need more as well.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.