The Economist comments on the "American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act":
a typical piece of congressional sausage-making originally projected to add $134 billion to the federal deficit. Only $79 billion of that qualifies as true stimulus: extended unemployment benefits, health subsidies for the unemployed and more Medicaid money for the states. Most of its hundred-odd other provisions are goodies for assorted constituents from Indian reservation property developers to cotton shirt manufacturers and routine extensions of expiring provisions such as the research tax credit.
A FutureOfCapitalism.com reader-watchdog-community member-content-co-creator responds: "What a crazy definition of 'stimulus'! Entitlement spending is stimulus? Unemployment benefits stimulate unemployment."
