Congressional Democrats have consistently argued that their higher spending level--$21 billion in FY 2008—is a small fraction of the overall federal budget.  But when you spread this out over 10 years, the difference amounts to $450 billion….hardly a small sum of money. 

To put this into perspective, this $450 billion could amount to: 

• A six-year repeal of the AMT,
• Twice the “cost” of extending the child tax credit for another 10 years,
• 91% of the “cost” of making the death tax permanent,
• 53% of the “cost” of making the individual income tax rates permanent,
• 11 times the amount of money needed to make marriage penalty relief permanent,
• Twice the amount needed to make the capital gains and dividend tax relief permanent, or
• Nearly the same amount as the non-interest portion of the Social Security surplus over 5 years.