Stimulus Plan Offers 'Noticeable Impact' -CBO Sees 65% Spent by End of Fiscal 2010 [View All]

[Pirate Smile]

Source: Washington Post

By Lori Montgomery
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 27, 2009; Page A07

Approximately two-thirds of the spending and tax cuts contained in an economic stimulus package crafted by House Democrats would flow into the economy by the end of fiscal 2010, producing a "noticeable impact on economic growth and employment," congressional budget analysts said yesterday.

In an eagerly awaited analysis of the stimulus package, which is set for a vote in the House tomorrow, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that the measure would cost the federal government about $816 billion over the next 10 years and that approximately $526 billion would be spent by the end of September 2010, or about 65 percent.

That would fall short of President Obama's goal of pushing at least 75 percent of the cash out the door over the next 19 months to create millions of jobs and ease the effects of what many economists say will be the longest, deepest and most painful recession since the Great Depression.

The total package -- including tax cuts and direct aid to the poor and unemployed -- won significantly better marks for speed than the portion of the package devoted to highways, schools and other infrastructure projects, which are among the Democrats' top priorities. The CBO report predicts that only about 40 percent of the $356 billion dedicated to those projects would be spent by the end of 2010.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/26/AR2009012602088.html?hpid=topnews