WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Bailout legislation
that may sail through Congress this week will cost about $6,500 per U.S.
family, a little over $2,000 per person, according to an estimate published
on the WashingtonWatch.com blog.
The blog post can be seen by clicking (or cutting and pasting) this
link: http://tinyurl.com/3foepw
Draft legislation that circulated over the weekend would authorize the
Secretary of the Treasury to purchase mortgage-related assets, and it would
give him $700 billion dollars to work with.
"It is possible that the federal government will not expend all of
those $700 billion, or even make some money back later," said
WashingtonWatch.com Webmaster Jim Harper, "but I agree with those who call
that possibility laughable."
The Resolution Trust Corporation, which was created to clean up the S&L
mess, had an estimated cost of about $50 billion in the early years, but
wound up costing about $124 billion.
"The bailout is plainly a sop to the financial services companies whose
profits were privatized and whose losses will now be socialized," says
Harper. "Proponents say that it's needed to prevent further financial
catastrophe. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says that reforms will
follow. It's up to you whom you agree with and whom you believe."
The draft legislation would raise the public debt limit to $11.3
trillion dollars. That's $116,000 per family, or $37,000 per person, in
total governmental debt.
WashingtonWatch.com uses government predictions about the costs or
savings from proposed laws to calculate the significance to average
Americans -- in dollars and cents -- of proposed changes to the nation's
policies. More information about these calculations is available on the
"about" page of the Web site.
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