maybe the deal isn't so bad for German taxpayers after all, according to Thomas Klau (in the New York Times article):

"The German taxpayer is much more likely to make money from this deal than to lose it, and the agreement is within the framework of what she [Merkel] agreed upon in successive Brussels summits."

Though I don't understand how that logic plays out, nor does the article bother to explain it.

The point is not to be right, but to get to right.