The article States and Cities in Scramble for Stimulus Cash by Monica Davey appeared in the NYTimes. Davey explains, now that President Obama is in office, to help save the country's economy, he is putting his stimulus package into play. This is a shocking $787 billions dollars of federal money that is going to be divided between the states the way they see fit. Most of the spending is going to be decided by federal lawmakers but other portions such as education and Medicaid is put in the hands of the state legislature. Many local politicians are upset by this, thinking they aren't getting the funding they need for transportation and in infastructures that they deserve. Projects that aren't ready to go into motion immediately are going to have to wait for the proper funding they need. Some polititians, such as Governor Mark Stanford of South Carolina think the stimulus package is a poor choice on President Obama's part. He believes this because so much money is being put into it. He explains that tax payers are going to be paying of this package for years and years. Hopefully, he is wrong, and this boost to the economy will help the economy get back on track and give jobs to the millions that currently are unemployed.
As outrageous as the stimulus package looks at first glance, I think it is a great idea. We need something radical to help turn this country around and more importantly pull the economy out of the recession. I also think that it is a good decision to put the federal polititians in control of the majority o the money decicions. I feel they will be less biase than local state polititians. At this point, we just have to wait it out and see how things pan out.
