Senate GOP’s ‘stimulus plan’ costs 3.5 times as much as Obama’s.

THINK PROGRESS

This morning, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that President Obama’s recovery package, priced at roughly $819 billion, is too expensive. GOP “members” believe that they can pass a “very robust” stimulus at a cheaper price, he said:

Most of my members believe that we could pass a very robust stimulus for less than the amount currently before us. We have been throwing figures around like it was paper money. We are already looking at, before we even do this, at over a trillion dollar deficit for this year. We all agree that we need to do something, but I don’t think we should not just completely act like the amount is irrelevant.

Watch it:

But McConnell’s cheaper plan doesn’t exist. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) is pushing the Senate GOP’s only alternative, “American Option: A Jobs Plan That Works.”


A new Wonk Room analysis finds that DeMint’s plan will cost $3.1 trillion over ten years, more than 3.5 times the cost of Obama’s:




Not surprisingly, DeMint’s plan consists of permanent tax breaks for corporations and lowering income tax for the wealthy. For the Senate GOP, it seems that deficit spending is permissible as long as it is done via tax cuts for the rich.