$900,000,000,000
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The Obama-Pelosi-Reid Debt Bill
This thing is crazy!!!! $900 BILLION in addition to the $700 BILLION they passed last October to "stimulate" the economy... There is no way this thing should pass, and that this could actually be considered the absolute best way to improve the economic situation in the United States.
But it is looking like it will, since it will only take the votes of the Democratic majority in the House and a few Republicans in the Senate before President Obama can sign it into law. So the best thing to do now is to actually look at what it proposes, and begin to figure out what is worth supporting, and what makes up the large chunks of the bill that we can probably do without.
UPDATE - 2/20/09
So I guess I overestimated the final bill amount in my title - it turned out to be only $700 and some-odd billion dollars. We saved over $100 billion from the initial projected cost! Of course, we'll make up for it in interest payments over the next few years, but who's counting!
$900,000,000,000 in the News
- Stimulus was not ‘Mostly an Infrastructure Spending Bill’Columbia Journalism Review14 hours ago
Discussing Obama’s first big initiative, the stimulus, Salter said that his old boss could not get behind what was mostly an infrastructure spending bill.
- Ritter: stimulus dollars should go to usa-made itemsDenver Post1 second ago
Gov. Bill Ritter will sign an executive order today encouraging state agencies to buy American- made products when using stimulus money for construction projects.
Is $900,000,000,000 a necessary amount to be spent?
See results without votingA few useful links
- Read the Stimulus
As they say, "$850 Billion, 1588 pages, and counting... somebody needs to read it!" - Congressional Budget Office
Cost estimate for the bill as introduced in the House of Representatives on January 26, 2009
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What do you think?
Thanks for the comment - I was hoping someone would point out some counterarguments. And you bring up a great point, and I would agree, that it would be important to try and counter for deflation, just as we would work to limit inflation.
But I'm still having a hard time with the number, and with how fast it was passed. It just doesn't feel right to me.
bgamall says:
11 months ago
Well, normally it would be crazy. But we have deflation. Deflation is a highly dangerous game to play. The revenue drop from deflation could exceed this figure if we do nothing. And this may not be enough. Roubini says that there could be 3 trillion total in writedowns. This 900 billion is puny in the face of that!