Treasury official: How did we arrive at $700 Bn? "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

[seafan]

Forbes, September 23, 2008

.....
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." .....

Thom Hartmann pointed out today:

The Social Security/Medicare budgets, added together, are just under $700 billion. The Pentagon budget is just over $700 billion. This would give credence to the abstract reasoning Paulson and Bernanke used to come up with $700 billion as **the figure** to present to us. They didn't want to ask for more than $700 Billion, at least initially, and they certainly didn't want to ask for less .


When is someone going to point out this Treasury official's statement to Congress? Proof that this figure was NOT arrived at using a sophisticated academic formula--- IT WAS GRABBED OUT OF THIN AIR. So Paulson/Bernanke/Bush agreed on $700 billion in a smoke and mirrors lie, put in place to rob us, yet again.




This crowd of racketeers have operated like this from the outset:

"For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction because it was the one reason everyone could agree on." ----Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense

5/28/2003 Vanity Fair interview

[ixion]

1. treasury official: "we picked a number that gave us wood"

..."and never in our wildest dreams did we think the suckers would take the bait."

[dkofos]

2. That is just FUCKING BRILLIANT.

[billyoc]

3. I'd just like to mention that the Secret Service is part of the Treasury Dept.

:scared:

[central scrutinizer]

4. so they, literally, pulled a number out of their ass

and Congress must act immediately!! The sky is falling!!

[Gin]

5. IMO they wanted to raid the treasury before the recess and election..

came up with an absurd plan and knew we would change it....used words to cause panic...and in the end..they get what they want anyway...we are all fools...

we have just been financially terrorized.

[Triana]

6. ?!?!?!?!!

:wtf:

:mad:

[Vinca]

7. We might as well fire these people and buy a dart board or

pull numbers out of a hat.