Cost Of The Compromise

Great news out of DC tonight. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has taken a look at today's compromise bill and it looks like the taxpayers are going to get a (small) break.

I

n any case, the ultimate cost to the government on the transactions would not be the total amount spent to purchase assets—limited to $700 billion outstanding at any one time—but rather the difference between the amount spent by the government and the amount received in earnings and sales proceeds when all of the assets are finally sold, presumably some years from now. That net cost is likely to be substantially less than $700 billion but is more likely than not to be greater than zero.

While I am still not happy that we the people are going to be on the hook for bailing out a bunch of failed CEO's, I am very glad to see that pork provisions to assist ACORN and people who can't make their car and credit card payments were taken out.