Redux

Lets have a late night class on the Recovery Act.

The total package was under $800 billion (but lets use ballpark figure of $900 billion cuz its late and easier to divide by three):
-- $300 billion in tax cuts (personal and business)
-- $300 billion in social safety net program increases (COBRA extension, UI extensions, etc)
-- $300 billion in grants, contracts, etc. (jobs)

Now remember that this total $900 billion is spread over (half of) FY 09, FY 10 and FY 11.

Using the ballparks again....$300 billion/yr over 3 years (in reality, much less in 09, more than half in 10 and the rest in 11)

Now take out one=third for the tax cuts - $100 billion/yr (lost revenue, which adds to the deficit)

That means about $200 billion/year additional spending out of a budget of over $3 trillion.

Now take out the social safety net spending (unless you want those folks and their kids on the streets).

And you're left with about $100 billion/year in spending on grants/contracts through DOE, DOT, HUD, DoEd, etc.....less than 5% of a $3+ trillion budget.

And this was offset in part by cuts in other programs in DOE, DOT, HUD, DoEd, etc.

To suggest the Recovery Act is a major contributor to the budget or deficits is just not reflected in the numbers....ballpark or real.

Make sense?