Lots of carping on the ‘net about the likely slow pace of stimulus spending. Nevermind the pace, I want to know what’s in it. You actually have to dig quite a bit to get the details of the package (especially with the CBO web site down today). Fortunately, I always keep my shovel handy. Here’s what I see:
(Click through to the live version to see the labels)
A few observations:
- There’s $90 billion in unstated spending.
- Infrastructure grabs the headlines, but education and health actually get the lion’s share.
- The “green” portion of the stimulus looks rather small in context. It also seems out of balance – more $ for energy supply than energy efficiency. I’m not convinced that energy supply subsidies are very green.
- The distribution of half the tax credits is unstated. How do you know the magnitude without knowing the components? Could it be that business tax credits constitute the majority? If so, that would be highly regressive.
Where’s the consulting sector in all this?