The Senate ultimately passed 81-16 a modified version of the House's economic stimulus package, adding rebates for seniors and disabled veterans and provisions to ensure that illegal immigrants would not receive the rebates. Faced with Republican resistance and a two-week recess coming up, Senate Democratic leaders gave up on the attempt to include increased low-income home heating assistance or enhanced unemployment compensation or the other energy provisions that had been considered. The House passed the modified provisions on February 7 as well, and sent the bill to the President for signature. Paulson has indicated that Treasury is already beginning to process the 130 million checks.
For the Senate Finance Committee's news release, see here.
For the Senate Finance Summary, see here.
Readers already know that I have my doubts whether this package will do much to give the economy a boost. There is a considerable amount of money here (about 3/4 of the amount we are taking to fund the war in Iraq each year), and much of it is going to people who don't need it. Those who don't need it are not nearly as likely to spend the money in ways that give a strong boost to the US economy--for example, if the money is used just to make a planned vacation in France a little more luxurious than it was planned to be, it'd be great for France but not so good for the US. For such a huge hit to the already big US budget deficit, it would be nice to have some long-term infrastructure improvements that would yield returns far into the future. Or at least it would be nice to have focused the spending on those who need it desperately to pay for food and shelter.
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