By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN, New York Times
Last update: September 20, 2008 - 10:51 PM
... The proposal was stunning for its eye-popping cost -- $200 billion higher than lawmakers had been told Friday to expect -- but also for its stark simplicity: It was just 2 1/2 pages long.
To accommodate the bailout, the proposal would raise the national debt ceiling from $10.6 trillion to $11.3 trillion. And it would place no restrictions on the administration other than requiring semiannual reports to Congress, allowing the Treasury to buy and resell mortgage debt as it sees fit ...
The plan, an ambitious effort to transfer the bad debts of Wall Street into the obligations of American taxpayers, was put forward after a series of bold interventions on behalf of ailing private firms seemed unlikely to prevent a crash of world financial markets.
A $700-billion expenditure on distressed mortgage-related assets would be roughly what the country has spent in direct costs on the Iraq war and more than the Pentagon's total yearly budget appropriation. It represents more than $2,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States.
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