10% of americans is 33 million people. That is many. You're still using 12 months in your calculation. The act says at least six months, or until it is not nee

10% of americans is 33 million people. That is many. You're still using 12 months in your calculation. The act says at least six months, or until it is not needed. So some number equal or greater than 2.9T Thinking about it as an annual expense seems very wrong. Even if it takes 18 months to recover, I wouldn't say it cost x/year + 1/2 * x/year I would say it cost the total cost over the 18 months. Fair point about it not being considered income, I missed that detail in my haste to make sure the only comment wasn't such a blatant misrepresentation of the cost of a program like this. edit: now I'm just nitpicking your math, but 10% of americans make over $130k and 18.7% of americans are children. I have to think a VANISHINGLY small number of those two percentages overlap (children making over 130k) so your calculation: (1 - .1) * (1 - .187) * 330M = 241M people should probably be: (1 - (0.1 + 0.187)) * 330M = 235M people Which is not materially far off your number, but it is 6M * 2k * 6 = 72B saved for the american taxpayer ;)