The $787 billion stimulus bill or The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is an Act of Congress signed into law by President Barack Obama on February 17, 2009.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act_of_2009
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is hopeful that the passage of the stimulus bill, along with other efforts, will help put the economy on a path toward recovery. Most economists believe that the bill will provide at least some short-term boost to the macroeconomy, improving both GDP and employment over the next few years. Over the long run, however, the new debt created from the stimulus – especially if accompanied by deficit-financed renewal of some provisions – will become a burden, creating a significant drag on the economy. To ensure sustained economic growth, policymakers must begin to deal with this debt and address the long-term fiscal gap more broadly once the economy recovers. - http://www.usbudgetwatch.org/files/crfb/StimulusAnalysis_1.pdf
Stimulus Type Cost (billions)
$286 (37%) go to tax cuts
$144 (18%) go to state & local fiscal relief (90% of that to Medicaid and education).
$356 (45%) go to federal social programs and federal spending programs.
$787 total
Stimulus Costs by Fiscal Year (%)
2009-23%, 2010-51%, 2011-17%, 2012-5%, 2013-4%
Money to Go Into Almost Every Corner of The Economy
(Highlights)
$286 billion for Tax cuts -
* $14 billion: Expanded college credit to provide a $2,500 expanded tax credit for college tuition and related expenses for 2009 and 2010.
* $6.6 billion: Homebuyer credit: $8,000 credit for all homes bought between 1/1/2009 and 12/1/2009
* $51 billion: Tax Relief For Companies
$147.7 billion for Healthcare - help states with Medicaid
$90.9 billion for Education
* $44.5 billion in aid to local school districts to prevent layoffs and cutbacks, with flexibility to use the funds for school modernization and repair (State Equalization Fund)
* $15.6 billion to increase Pell Grants from $4,731 to $5,350
$82.5 billion for Aid To Low Income Workers
* $150 million to help refill food banks
* $100 million for meals programs for seniors, such as Meals on Wheels
* $100 million for free school lunch programs
$80.9 billion for Infrastructure Investment
* $45.2 billion for highway construction
* $27.5 billion for highway and bridge construction
$20.7 billion for Government Facilities And Vehicle Fleets - Total:
* $4.6 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers for environmental restoration, flood protection, hydropower, and navigation infrastructure projects
* $4.2 billion to repair and modernize Defense Department facilities.
$15 billion for Supplemental Investments
* $7.2 billion for complete broadband and wireless Internet access
* $1 billion to the Bureau of Rec for drinking water projects for rural or drought-likely areas
$49.7 billion for Energy
* $11 billion funding for an electric smart grid
* $6 billion for the cleanup of radioactive waste (mostly nuclear power plant sites)
* $3.4 billion for carbon capture experiments
$12.7 billion for Housing
* $4 billion to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for repairing and modernizing public housing, including increasing the energy efficiency of units.
$8.9 billion for Scientific Research
* $1 billion to NASA
$17.2 billion Other
* $8.8 billion: State Block Grants: in aid to states to defray budget cuts.
* $4 billion for state and local law enforcement agencies
* $1.1 billion for improving airport security
* $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts to support artists
Earmarks (Pork Estimate) - Democrats insist they are nowhere in the plan; Republicans see “pork” everywhere. The majority of the $787 billion isn't pork. Tax relief alone makes up some 34 percent of the bill. The only pork may be found in the discretionary spending portion of the bill, which amount to $308 billion. Of that money, $48 billion goes to the Department of Transportation for various rail and road projects to repair and expand infrastructure. That leaves about $260 billion of discretionary spending that goes to various federal agencies, as well as to state and local governments. How much of that amount helps special interests instead of the economy as a whole? Here is a list of some of the most controversial individual pieces of discretionary spending that have a percentage of pork. http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/economy/2009/02/19/finding-the-pork-in-the-obama-stimulus-bill.html
Pork Estimate - $3.1 billion or 0.4% of the Stimulus Package:
* Green Golf Carts. – Tax Credit. (Pork estimate - $30 million) - New tax credit for buying low-speed neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs), electric motorcycles, and three-wheeled vehicles. Buyers of NEVs—small cars that cannot legally travel faster than 25 miles per hour—now qualify for a tax credit of up to $2,500.
The law does set the stage for the dawning of plug-in vehicles, but existing tax credits for purchase of hybrid vehicles remain unchanged. Toyota and Honda hybrids no longer qualify, and Ford hybrids will reach the sales cap and begin fading out sometime this spring, though the Nissan Altima Hybrid (only sold in eight states) and various hybrid models from General Motors will not qualify until some future date. The new law does not extend these existing hybrid credits.
* Green Cars for Federal Employees. (Pork estimate - $300 million) $300 million to buy "green" cars for federal employees.
* Closing The Ice-Breaking Gap. (Pork estimate - $98 million) $98 million - The U.S. Coast Guard is getting a shot in the arm from the stimulus, thanks to $98 million for a "polar icebreaker." The service currently has three ice-breaking ships able to sail through the frozen Arctic Ocean, but it wants a new and improved one to upgrade the aging fleet. The icebreakers are needed for national security reasons. Russia, Germany, China, Sweden and Canada are all investing and maintaining and expanding their national ice-breaking capacity.
* Homeland Security Stimulus. (Pork estimate – $200 million) $200 million is allocated to "design and furnish" the Department of Homeland Security headquarters.
* Clean Coal. (Pork estimate - $0) $3.4 billion of the $787 billion will go to the Fossil Energy Research and Development program, a Department of Energy project that seeks to reduce the amount of carbon emitted by the use of fossil fuels, most of which will go toward the development of clean-coal technology. The $3.4 billion is probably only a fraction of what is needed. In the short term, this will create research jobs and jobs at power plants.
* Local Money. (Pork estimate $900 million) $144 billion from the bill is flowing directly to state and local governments. That means the true amount of pork will depend on the priorities of local governors, legislatures, and mayors. It should go to "ready-to-go" projects released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors in January, dubbed the "Main Street Economic Recovery," but some of the most outlandish of these projects, such as an $886,000 36-hole disc golf course in Austin, Texas, won't be allowed to receive stimulus dollars because the bill explicitly says that none of its funds can be used for "any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, or swimming pool." But a prohibition on funding toward any "stadium, community park, museum, theater, art center, and highway beautification project" was dropped from the final version of the bill. That means that many other porky projects from the U.S. Conference of Mayors report are open to get money. That includes $150 million for parking improvements at a Little League facility in Cidra, Puerto Rico, and $6 million for a "snowmaking and maintenance facility" at Spirit Mountain ski area in Duluth, Minnesota.
* U.S. Geological Survey – (Pork estimate $30 million) $140 million appropriation. Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana, singled out the appropriation as an example of questionable government spending during the GOP response to President Obama's address to Congress Feb 24th. The governor questioned why "something called 'volcano monitoring' " was included in the stimulus bill. He said, "Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington." In fact the $140 million line-item for the USGS includes not only monitoring, but also replacement of aging equipment and other critical deferred maintenance and improvement projects. The spending could provide new jobs no different than the amount of money one would spend on building a street or building a bridge.
* The Salt Harvest Marsh Mice to get $30 million? (Pork estimate $0) On Fox News, Feb 24, 2009, Seabn Hannity repeated claims that the $787 billion stimulus package was full of pork singling out mice. He said, "The salt harvest marsh mouse that gets $30 million… that is a pork project." Media Matters for America has noted, the bill does not contain any language directing funds to the salt marsh harvest mouse or its San Francisco wetlands habitat, a fact a House Republican who originated the claim has confessed as false.
* Aide to Native Americans . (Pork estimate $1.51 billion)
$510 million for the rehabilitation of Native American housing
$500 million for Bureau of Indian Affairs infrastructure projects
$500 million for healthcare services on Indian reservations
No comments:
Post a Comment