News of CIT’s filing for bankruptcy won’t spoil Christmas for holiday-hungry retailers, but it will amount to an empty stocking for taxpayers. CIT provides short-term financing to small- and mid-sized businesses that manufacture and supply merchandise to U.S. retailers. The $2.3 billion that the federal government loaned to CIT last year as part of the rescue of troubled financial institutions is being written off by company executives who have no intention of paying back Uncle Sam while they reorganize. The Treasury Department, then under the leadership of outgoing secretary Henry Paulson, bailed out CIT because federal officials believed the lender could weather the bad economic times.