"States and Cities in Scramble for Stimulus Cash" by Monica Davey of the New York Times wrote this article in response to President Obama's stimulus package that was to be signed this past Tuesday in Chicago, Illinois.
In this article, Davey brings up many good points to his stimulus package. The amount of money released with this stimulus package is the biggest amount of money since LBJ's Great Society program. With this amount of money also comes many disputes on the state, local, and federal levels. This money however is not freely given, with it comes many restrictions. It provides battlegrounds for political fights. This money has to be divided between schools, roads and infrastructures, and medicaid. Many states are cutting back on what seems to be the most important things... this worries many people because it is going to hurt schools and those who are on medicaid.
I find it interesting that Davey also included something from Mark Sanford, governor of South Carolina. He thinks that the stimulus package is a crock. In the State Newspaper he says, it's a pork-barrel spending and bad policy and vowing that he will not take any of the money from Washington.
Also for every job that the package creates, it cost $223,000 to American taxpayers. This is interesting considering the fact that it is supposed to help people by creating jobs and such but then it turns around costs the ones in America who are stable. I found it interesting to know that if the stimulus bill were a country, it would be the 15th largest country in the world. This information really puts the crisis in a perspective that virtually everybody can come to understand. We have got to unite as a country and do something about this crisis or we are slowly going to migrate into another "great depression."
