A little earlier today, the House of Representatives passed the compromised form of the stimulus bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009), and the Senate is expected to pass the stimulus tonight. It won’t be long before the bill is signed into law by President Obama and the appropriated funds are doled out to various programs and other recipients.
The compromise that was worked out by a small committee of Democrats and Republicans behind closed doors is now available in full, although I find it unlikely that all voting members of Congress have read the entire document. If you have the time and the inclination, and you want to read the entire bill, here are the documents.
February 19 update: The White House has now made available the final printed and signed law. Read the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 [pdf] here.
Original February 13 information: Here is the final draft of the bill with proofreading marks before final printing and signing.
Recovery Bill Part A [pdf]
Recovery Bill Part B [pdf]
Part B contains many of the items we’ve been discussing on Consumerism Commentary recently, such as the $400/$800 Working Americans tax credit and the $8,000 tax credit for new homebuyers (reduced from $15,000).
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Hey Flexo,
You know that almost nobody in congress read that bill right? Its 1000+ pages.
It was made available at 12:30 the night before. Thats not enough time the congressional staffers to consider and digest the text.
Oh yeah, Flexo. Maybe I’m off base here, you didn’t mention the legislation is going to be funded nearly 100 with borrowed money. I think this is an important point that not everybody understands.
I wonder who in the world will actually read the entire bill. I know it will not be those actually voting on it.
Since none of the congressional staff had time to read the bill in its entirety, it is a given that none of the senators or representatives had time to read the bill either. Therefore, our nefarious leaders have committed the taxpayer and their descendents to pay the bill for many generations.
By their own admission, they do not know if this spending will work (30% chance).
We are lost and getting more lost.
If the President, any member of Congress or the Senate voted on the stimulus bill without reading it in it’s entirety they have committed a grave criminal act against the American taxpayer. Why would the Feds once again mail out stimulus checks? It would save a lot of money if taxpayers just took a credit for the amount of the stimulus check. The government needs to work smarter and save money. Are they issuing a stimulus check so they can tax us again on our money the following year? It is quite evident why these government representatives weren’t successful in private industry. They’re popular though, regardless of qualifications (or lack thereof) so they can get a vote. My state’s representatives voted 50/50, however, I don’t know if any of them read the bill entirely.
mskitee: I think you misread the law. The government is not issuing stimulus checks like they did in 2008, nor are they taxing us on the stimulus payment we received in 2008.
Thank you for correcting me Flexo. I do hope the legislators that put the stimulus bill together won’t be in office too much longer because they really lost sight of what the stimulus bill was supposed to be. Junior high students could have remained focused and done a much better job. Why a budget was put together and included in the stimulus bill amazes me. Perhaps they can’t add two columns of numbers or need new abacuses.
A tax credit sounds great, who wouldn’t want any type of money back but will that stimulating the economy? We dont think so.
In other words, am I correct in the assessment that the stimulus program does not include tax rebates. We will not be receiving checks like we did in 2008 to spend to stimulate the economy?
Am I correct in my assessment that we will not be receiving rebate checks to stimulate the economy as part of the stimulus plan?
Patricia: No checks this time around. It’s a tax credit that’s advanced to you via lower withholding in your paycheck. You’ll take home more money each week (or two weeks, etc., however often you get paid).
I am trying to figure out why Americans have to bailout AIG. The Federal Trade Commission is supposed to enforce the antitrust laws that are in place and AIG seems to have been one of the biggest monopolies around. Also, what was the SEC doing? This debacle didn’t happen overnight. It’s been over ten years in the making. It sure smells like a lot of Federal employees were in bed with AIG and turning the other cheek. The media made such a big deal over Martha Stewart’s insider trading and today that seems to be such a small kettle of fish. I don’t understand why Americans aren’t screaming bloody murder for the Federal employees that allowed this to happen.
The government is getting much larger with the creation of the National Coordinator for Health and the HIT Policy and Standards Committees. This activity smells of socialized medicine and seems to be nothing more than a glorified data entry group. They’re supposed to have a health record for everyone in the United States by 2014. The bill doesn’t state Americans, Medicare, Medicaid, or Veteran claimants–just everyone. We definitely don’t need everyone’s health record. We don’t need another reporting agency either–we need to utilize the current personnel. Everyone knows that you don’t permanently hire IT professionals, you only use them as consultants. The Feds had 14.6 million employees in 2007, later data couldn’t be located. When is the government going to downsize and get with the program?
Hey, the government wants to be able to control all industries and banks and tell the little man what they can an cannot do. Government control is what it is all about, nothing more. Our grandkids are going to be the fall guy to pay it back. Shame on the US government and Mr .Obama. The people are supposed to be the governing body but we won’t ever see that again. 90% of the stimulus package won’t work anyway, it’s just to gain control.
You said that we will get additional money in our paychecks. For those who dont work, how would they get the Stimulus? When is this going to take effect?
Thanks,
Johnny