White House Deal With Congress Would Cost More Than Stimulus

MSNBC’s First Read notes that the deal in the works between the White House and Congress to extend the Bush tax cuts for the rich in return for unemployment benefits and other, targeted tax cuts, is more expensive than the stimulus plan Republicans complain about.

Bigger than the stimulus? And here’s something to chew on: Extending the Bush tax cuts for two years — along with extending jobless benefits and targeted tax cuts — would likely cost more (approximately $1 trillion) than the stimulus cost (approximately $800 billion). Here’s our back-of-envelope math arriving at the $1 trillion approximation: If the price tag of extending the Bush tax cuts over 10 years is nearly $4 trillion, then doing it for two years is some $800 billion. And extending the jobless benefits and targeted tax cuts raises that price tag even higher.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.