Will it's "infrastructure" spending really help the economy? Not really:
"According to the Congressional Budget Office, only $4 billion out of $30 billion in highway spending, $3 billion of $18.5 billion in renewable-energy spending, and less than $7 billion of $14 billion of school-construction spending would be spent in the first two years. If spending will take place in 2011 or later, there’s no reason for it to be jammed into a hastily passed stimulus bill.
Unless, of course, Democrats want to use the crisis atmosphere to bypass the normal budgetary process for long-term spending. Almost $16 billion for Pell Grants for college students and $1.9 billion for basic scientific research won’t stimulate the economy in the near term. Neither will funding for the National Endowment for the Arts ($50 million) or for the National Mall ($200 million)."
We'll continue to poke holes in this bill in the days to come.
UPDATE: and by the way, when simple facts such as these are pointed out, how does the netroots left respond? Like this:
"The anti-stimulus crowd is getting desperate. The possibility that a
young charismatic new president will push through an ambitious package
that begins to set the economy right is truly terrifying to this crew.
After all, if the economy begins to turn around and has largely
recovered in three or four years, the Republican leadership can look
forward to spending most of their careers in the political
wilderness."
Sad.
