The Obama administration is expected to slash the estimated cost of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) by $200 billion, which could help trim the nation’s bloated deficit, CNNMoney.com reported today.

The latest projection, which will be officially unveiled by the White House in the coming days, would cut the long-term cost of TARP to $141 billion, according to a U.S. Treasury Department official.

As recently as August, the administration had projected that the long-term costs of running TARP would reach $341 billion.

But that outlook has improved as banks have raced to repay taxpayer funds to the government in recent months. To date, banks have returned some $71 billion to taxpayers, according to the Treasury Department.

And that number continues to grow. Last week, Bank of America announced plans to repay the $45 billion in taxpayer aid it received over the past year.

Additionally, taxpayers have pocketed another $10 billion in interest payments stemming from these investments, according to recent Treasury Department estimates.

However, the American public is still expected to incur a massive loss in the end — the question is just how much it will be. A separate estimate issued earlier this year by the Congressional Budget Office warned that TARP will ultimately cost taxpayers approximately $159 billion.

Despite this reality, reports that TARP will cost less than originally anticipated — incurring less debt — have generated speculation that the “leftover” funding could instead be allocated towards another jobs program, or used to pay down the country’s ballooning deficit.