Stimulus Spending

Yesterday President Barack Obama signed the $317.2 billion stimulus bill after much debate. Unfortunately, the passage of the bill split down party lines, with a majority of Democrats supporting (along with three Republican senators) and a majority of Republicans opposing. It would have been nice if the bill could have passed with bipartisan support. I tend to agree with President Obama that in the current economic downturn, the debate doesn’t need to worry about good versus bad spending, but rather the creation of measures that stimulate economic growth through job creation and spending.

According to CNN, the spending provisions of the bill are broken into the following sections:

• $50.07 billion – Transportation, housing and urban development
• $66.15 billion – Labor, health and education
• $98.23 billion – Energy and environment
• $15.99 billion – Agriculture and rural development
• $16.45 billion – Defense and security
• $17.84 billion – Commerce, justice and science
• $45.47 billion – Federal and state government