Time to Shut the Republican Party Down

Mark Kleiman:

Magnitudes: Total value of the bailout bill: $700 billion. Net cost to the taxpayer: unknown, but much less than that [$100 billion]. Drop in the value of U.S. stocks today when the bill failed to pass: $1.3 trillion.

That's not quite the right comparison. There is also a loss of $2.0 trillion or so in lost wages corresponding to the lost expected profits that are reflected in the stock market declines.

The House Republicans thus have a benefit-cost ratio of -30-to-1.