The stimulus bill

Whew, so we have a stimulus bill, and Obama has discovered why so few have governed from the center. He has managed to dissatisfy everyone - the lefties are upset about the giveaways to the wealthy, the righties are upset about the huge spending. Anyway, here's what they are proposing:

Aggregate spending proposal totaling $311 BN, to be allocated as follows:

• Investments in Infrastructure and Science - $120 billion
• Investments in Health - $14.2 billion
• Investments in Education and Training - $105.9 billion
• Investments in Energy, including over $30 billion in infrastructure - $37.5 billion
• Helping Americans Hit Hardest by the Economic Crisis - $24.3 billion
• Law Enforcement, Oversight, Other Programs - $7.8 billion

Let's put this in perspective. According the Federal budget estimates, the aggregate outlay by the US government projected for 2009 was $3.107 BN. This spending represents about a 10% increase in the US budget, or roughly 2% of the US GDP. This is through spending alone. While the exact numbers are hard to come by, new agencies are reporting on TV that almost 80% of this amount is likely to be spent in the next 18 months.

Meanwhile, there is a lot of discussion about the remaining part of the stimulus, reportedly $477 BN, a large part of which is in tax cuts. Haven't found the details on the web yet. Will post it when I do.

Is this package big enough? Probably not. At last not big enough to be sure it will work. But, if enough people start feeling good enough, it would stall the downward slide, and that might be a good start.