Where did the $700 billion figure come from?

[PSPS]

On Thom Hartman today, they had Ellen Ratner who said that this figure was apparently pulled out of thin air. It was chosen, she said, only because it "was about the same as the largest segments of the budget, like the military budget." In other words, it was never arrived at through any kind of formula or computation. It was picked solely because they thought it was the largest figure they could put out there and still be taken seriously.

[liberal N proud]

1. Out of bu$h's ass

[valerief]

2. Cheney probably. It's his severance pay. nt

[WhiteTara]

3. your social security trust fund n/t

[Kutjara]

4. All the better to hide the theft, my dear.

Since nobody knows how much will be needed, or what it will be spent on, expect Iraq-grade levels of misappropriation, redirection, and outright theft. Make no mistake, this is just another robbery by the Bush Gang.

[JDPriestly]

5. I thought it was someone other than Ellen Ratner.

Who was it?

[ret5hd]

6. here's a snip from Forbes that explains it all:

http://www.forbes.com/home/2008/09/23/bailout-paulson-congress-biz-beltway-cx_jz_bw_0923bailout.html

<snip>
"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."
<snip>

[Disturbed]

7. Marketing Ploy

Theory: Anything close to $500 Billion would translate into Half $Trillion. Anything close to $800 Billion would be thought of as a $Trillion. The word "Trillion" is scary. So $700 Billion was decided upon as a better marketing ploy. Sort of like the Ads for products as $19.95 instead of $20.

[seafan]

8. I heard that as well. More info here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4088494&mesg_id=4088494