Bailout too vague to price, CBO says

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 (UPI) -- The U.S. Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday the cost of the Treasury Department plan to bail out financial firms could not be estimated.

The cost of the bailout plan, frequently reported as a $700 billion package, could not be estimated, because there are too many unknowns, the head of the budget office, Peter Orszag, told the House Budget Committee, The Financial Times reported.

"The secretary would have the authority to purchase virtually any asset, at any price, and sell it at any future date. The lack of specificity regarding how that authority would be implemented makes it impossible at this point to provide a quantitative analysis of the net cost to the federal government," Orszag said.

The cost could not be estimated, in part, because the government could not project how much would be recovered when the illiquid mortgage-linked securities were sold, Orszag said.

But the final net cost "would be substantially less than $700 billion, unless you lose 100 percent of what you're purchasing," Orszag said.

Several lawmakers have complained that the plan amounts to handing the Treasury a blank check, the Times reported.