Stimulating Enough For You?

The $787 billion economic stimulus package President Obama signed into law Tuesday in Denver isn't going to get the country out of the recession overnight. But it's a start.

The bill was passed Friday night with an overwhelmingly Democratic majority. All but three of the Rush-publicans, who took their orders from a certain radio talk jock, voted against it. They claimed the stimulus package was just another excuse for cramming in pet projects at taxpayers' expense, and that tax cuts are the only way out. So much for Obama's tilting at the windmills of partisanship.

Here's who is supposedly helped by the stimulus: $40 billion goes to the unemployed, $14 billion to Social Security recipients, $46 billion for public works projects, $21 billion for health care insurance, $54 billion for education, $2.8 billion for homeland security, and $4 billion for law enforcement.

Here's who it won't help: anyone who's been unemployed longer than a year (because there have been so many layoffs since), has a product to sell (because most of the money will go towards paying bills and other necessities), and who needs to pay off the mortgage on that dream home they couldn't afford.

States would also receive a nice chunk of change from the package to lower their deficits. Minnesota is getting $4 to $9 billion (depending on the source) out of it, as long as Governor Tim Pawlenty isn't too proud to accept the money.

Wall Street isn't too impressed with the stimulus (the Dow dropped nearly 300 points Tuesday) so far, because of their apparent lack of confidence in Obama's financial team--Treasury Secretary Michael Geithner, in particular. He had problems articulating the administration's new plan to bail out wayward financial institutions, after the first resulted in the bankers pocketing the money without much in the way of oversight. Also, how can you trust a person in charge of the nation's finances if he hasn't paid his own taxes (a problem that caused some of Obama's other Cabinet nominees to bow out)?

Count on this: You will be seeing another stimulus package go through Congress either this year or next, because the one that President Obama just signed may not be enough. Roads will be repaired and schools may be funded. But, as someone once said, the best social program you can get is a job. And there aren't enough of those out there for the stimulus package to matter.