shrillHave you wondered where they came up with the $700 billion figure?
The more Congress examines the Bush administration's bailout plan, the hazier its outcome gets. At a Senate Banking Committee hearing Tuesday, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle complained of being rushed to pass legislation or else risk financial meltdown.
"The secretary and the administration need to know that what they have sent to us is not acceptable," says Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn. The committee's top Republican, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, says he's concerned about its cost and whether it will even work.
In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.
"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number." [1]
Let me repeat that in case your optic nerves fail to process bold print:
"We just wanted to choose a really large number."
If anything even close to the original bailout plan passes, it is time for either departure or riot.
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Edited to add: Tim of Balloon Juice hits it out of the park: "Across the country, satire writers sadly capped their pens and bookmarked monster.com." Read the whole thing; it's a devastating roundup of the various "conservative" imperial contenders trying to out-stupid each other in public today.