Only $100 billion of the $787 billion stimulus package passed nine months ago has actually been spent by the federal government so far, with another $90 billion of stimulus coming in the form of tax reductions, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported Monday evening. That leaves three quarters of the package -- and its stimulative effects -- yet to come.
Slow as that pace may seem, it's in line with initial CBO estimates.
But much of the spending hasn't had the full impact it could, the report says, because "it appears that stimulus funds substituted for some spending from regular appropriations."
Despite the limitations, the CBO estimates that between 600,000 and 1.6 million people were employed in the third quarter of 2009 who otherwise would not have been. The spending and tax cuts raised the Gross Domestic Product by somewhere between 1.2 and 3.2 percent, it found, and reduced unemployment by 0.3 to 0.9 percent.
Somehow this will be spun that the Stimulus Package was an utter failure when in fact it's the only thing that has kept us from falling off a cliff. More would have been better and more is needed to be rolled out quicker, but I think we can settle the "porkulus" claims as the hogwash the have always been. I am so tired of the Cantor's of the Republican party stating over and over that it hasn't worked, when indeed their own states have benefited from the Stimulus. They were wrong to vote against it and wrong now to pretend it was a government takeover or spending spree. It was indeed a necessity in these trying times.
And in case you were wondering how it works...
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