CBO SCORES THE STIMULUS – PART 2….So how did the stimulus bill turn out? Answer: according to the CBO, pretty well. Their scoring of the original House bill is here, and their scoring of the final bill is here. The bottom line for both bills is below: the original bill pumped out 64% of its money over the next 18 months, while the final bill pumps out 74%.
Now, the final bill has a different mix of taxes and spending, and it also has a bit less total spending than the original bill. However, it has more spending in the next two fiscal years. This frankly doesn’t seem like a bad tradeoff. All kvetching aside — and I’ve got a lot of the same kvetches as other liberals — the final bill really doesn’t seem substantially worse than the original, and in some respects it’s better. Given the realities of the sausage factory, that’s not bad.
