WashingtonWatch

WashingtonWatch.com is a new website that presents estimates of the costs or savings per family or person for a variety of bills.  Here’s the latest DOD budget cost:

S. 2766 would authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2007 for the
military functions of the Department of Defense (DoD), for activities
of the Department of Energy (DOE), and for other purposes, including
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Cost Per Family: $5535.19

The website is a useful collection but be aware that there is no attempt to do any cost-benefit or incidence analysis.  The numbers are just brute government estimates of the total program spending or tax reduction divided by the number of families or persons.  I can guarantee you, for example, that the following calculation for the "average family" is way, way off the mark.

H.R. 5638 makes the estate and gift tax permanent; increases the
estate and gift tax credit to a $5 million effective exclusion amount,
making any unused effective exclusion amount portable between spouses;
and reduces rates, as well as making other changes in tax law.

Savings per average family: $1896.79