I’ll ask a different question. Which portions of this bill actually stimulate the economy and lead to job creation? Infrastructure spending? How soon will this spending have any effect on economy? A few energy and science projects – yes, this is about the only thing about this bill that I like (agreed with Jim here).

@Jim – “First, the bailout was set around $850 billion- $150 billion in pork(thanks, republicans).”
Why republicans? The bill was drafted by the democrats with no input from republicans whatsoever. Republicans wanted tax cuts for small businesses that could actually lead to job creation. None of their ideas got into the bill. The refundable tax credit idea for those earning under 75K similar to what we had in summer is a completely democratic idea. There are very little tax cuts for businesses – not nearly enough to actually help with job creation. I do actually agree with you on many aspects of the bill – science and technology spending or mass transit, but other things while worthwhile do nothing to actually provide much needed help to economy now or create jobs (or at least stop massive layoffs).
As to taxing the rich – I don’t care if Donald Trump pays higher taxes. I can even afford to pay a little bit more myself – as long as I am employed. I do care a lot if my employer -one of those rich Fortune 500 company pays higher taxes. Higher taxes = higher operating expenses = lower earnings = layoffs. Our high corporate business tax is contributing to much lower cost of moving business abroad. Which is what has been happening for the past 10 years. BTW – I am not republican, I actually voted against Bush twice, but as I have a habit of reading my employer’s earning reports (with fear), I do know how taxing businesses affects my paycheck and employment.

I do realize the need for stimulus. But it has to actually help the economy and job creation. When more people are employed, more people pay taxes and that reduces debt. When people are losing their jobs, when businesses close, there isn’t much revenue coming in.

One thing about government debt. Reading some of the posts above that compare government debt with individual debt leads me to question if many posters above understand how the government debt works. For those who don’t: government debt is bonds, treasury bills, TIPs, that we can buy ourselves i.e. when we buy government bonds we are lending money to the government. In the past it wasn’t bad because most of the debt was owned by Americans: i.e. the government borrows from us and our taxes pay for the interest, but the interest is paid back to us. But now most of the debt is owned by foreigners, especially Chinese. Which means that in future they can dictate our policies or control the interest on this bonds.

Right now investors are so scared that they are willing to buy supposedly safe US government debt for an inflated price and with near-0% yield (for short term) or 2.5% yield for long term bonds. (Really, if I were the government I’d issue as many low interest bonds as possible and use the extra money to buy back older higher interest bonds i.e. use low interest loan to repay a high interest one. I think Bernacke hinted that he is buying back some of older bonds, if it’s true it would be nice).

But Chinese and others start questioning if US treasuries are worth their current inflated price. IIf they lose appetite for the US debt, they may not want to buy our bonds or start selling what they have. When there are more sellers than buyers, bonds lose their value. This will lead to higher rates the US will need to pay on new bonds. Sure, it’s nice that the US has to pay its debt in its own currency, if need be it can just print more money. But this will lead to inflation and even higher rates. At any rate, having foreigners have that much control over our policies isn’t safe.

But… I do believe that some kind of stimulus is needed to revive the economy, create jobs and consequently increase number of people who pay taxes. I just don’t see enough in this bill to do the job and I see a lot of pork. Granted some of this “pork” are useful things (in the long run), but the measures that are needed now are those that will actually help the economy.

As far as the spending, sure some of it isn’t necessary.If you read the summary you’d realize there’s a lot of decent energy and science-type projects. The money toward mass transit is much needed, our public transit is far behind Europe’s and Japan’s. But all that money for college financial aid and work study needs to be spent- it really should increase about the same percent as the increase in tuition yearly. Oh but I think financial aid should be contingent on good grades- at least 3.0 or higher after the first semester. Anyone can coast through college with a 2.0, but what’s the point of that?

Last thing, remember a lot of this won’t be spent immediately, and a lot of these are projects to improve America long-term, its not just a huge desperate money spike.

I cannot see any way that we as a nation can realistically expect to borrow our way to prosperity. All we do is continue to push off our financial problems for a few more years and set ourselves up for far worse when those debts need to be paid. Inevitably the debt grows faster than our economy until we reach a point that investors lose confidence and are no longer willing to loan the government additional funds. After all, the only thing backing our debts is the as-yet untested belief that the government would never default!

Don’t forget, our GDP growth is usually around 2 to 3% per year while we are paying over 4% just in interest (or more accurately borrowing that money from new investors to repay the interest to older investors, like a Federal Ponzi scheme). Unless we somehow get GDP growth that is higher than the interest and deficit, we are only falling further behind no matter how “good” the economy appears to be.

There is no reason for government to go into debt. Ever. Just like a credit card, the consequences are hidden until they become crushing.