The Vig

Via Reason

The only problem is, it's the rest of us who are going to wind up with the broken legs if this isn't paid off.


Honorable Paul Ryan
Ranking Member
Committee on the Budget
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congressman:

As you requested, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated the costs
of additional debt service that would result from enacting H.R. 1, the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Such costs are not
included in CBO’s cost estimates for individual pieces of legislation and
are not counted for Congressional scorekeeping purposes for such
legislation.

Under CBO’s current economic assumptions and assuming that none of the
direct budgetary effects of H.R. 1 are offset by future legislation, CBO
estimates that the government’s interest costs would increase by
$0.7 billion in fiscal year 2009 and by a total of $347 billion over the 2009-
2019 period (see enclosed table).

If you would like any additional information, we would be happy to
provide it. The CBO staff contact is Eric Schatten, who can be reached at
226-2880.

Sincerely,
Douglas W. Elmendorf
Director