Direct Stimulus Spending Hits $100 Billion Milestone
Federal agencies have now spent more than $100 billion on contracts, grants, loans and entitlements, according to Recovery.gov, the site mandated by Congress to track stimulus spending. Combined with the $62.5 billion in tax relief that’s already out the door, total outlays are slightly more than 20 percent of the stimulus package passed by Congress in February.
The $100 billion milestone is a symbolic one. Moreover, as we’ve noted in this space before, the pace of stimulus spending has declined in recent months, from about $1.3 billion daily in its first 100 days to about $570 million a day in September, as large block grants to states gave way to smaller (and slower) spending projects. So while it took seven months for federal agencies to spend their first $100 billion, the next $100 billion may be a longer time coming.
Officials have struggled to spend the nearly $800 billion stimulus package quickly and effectively.
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1 comments
websmith
Sept. 28, 2009, 8:45 p.m.
It’s unfortunate that people running this country, and it’s no longer the general population, are so small minded and destructive that they couldn’t realize that they had the resources, even though they’re not supposed to, to turn this economy around and get it permanently headed in the right direction with less than $25 billion, which they’re also not supposed to have.
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