Wednesday, January 27, 2010

CNN On Stimulus Spending ("Oh, Phase 2, Uh Ok...")

CNN has analyzed how the President's $787 billion stimulus package is actually being spent.  I've embedded this segment below.  It begins with a startling comparison of the total cost of this program against the total costs of  the Marshall Plan and the New Deal (on an inflation adjusted basis).


Apparently almost 2/3 of the stimulus money has been spent to fund entitlement programs (notably Medicaid) and tax cuts.  I thought the stimulus package was all about creating jobs by immediately funding so-called  'shovel ready' infrastructure construction programs, like roads and bridges.  But from watching this, I now know that I was badly mistaken.  (Silly me.)  That portion of the program was always intended to kick in during "Phase 2" of the program, according to this report, which is about to start now (a year later).


Funny how I don't remember the term "Phase 2" ever being used when President Obama was selling this to the American people last year with a passionate, almost desperate, sense of urgency.

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