Disappeared News: They just made up that number, and don’t you laugh, they are serious about it

Thursday, September 25, 2008

They just made up that number, and don’t you laugh, they are serious about it

by Larry Geller

More web gems.

You’ve seen a certain number several times over the past couple of days: 700 billion dollars. Where did that come from exactly?

We poor sheep aren’t in a position to question those guys in Washington, we just go by what we read or watch on TV. Everyone seems to say a fix will cost taxpayers $700 billion. At least.

Forbes asked about the number, though:

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."
Wow. If it wants to see a bailout bill passed soon, the administration's going to have to come up with some hard answers to hard questions. Public support for it already seems to be waning. According to a Rasmussen Reports poll released Tuesday, 44% of those surveyed oppose the administration's plan, up from 37% Monday.

"We just wanted to choose a really large number."

You didn’t miss that, I know. I just wanted to repeat it in bold face type. Surreal.

Public support has slipped further, I understand, though I don’t know if the polls are to be believed.

Now, if that number was simply made up, then Congress won’t have to agree to anything like it. I assume they read Forbes.

Keep on surfin’ the web, that’s where the info seems to be.