I just realized, in reading over my post on the House Republicans’ alternative to the Paulson plan, a.k.a. the TARP, that I kind of buried the lede. I asked Mark Zandi, a big-time expert on the mortgage mess (buy his book here) and a McCain adviser (not one of the guys who rides along in the plane or anything, but still), what he thought of it. This was the core of his response:
[T]his is a much less effective way of addressing the problem and would very likely cost taxpayers more than the tarp.
So there’s your lede: McCain adviser says House Republican plan would cost taxpayers more than Paulson bailout.
