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Originally Posted by Cool Beans
I Strongly believe that it is set this way on purpose, so the bulk will be spent during the 2 years prior to the next presidential election, so the masses will see the effect then and it will be in their minds when it comes time to vote.
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That's a perfectly good
political argument, irony intended.
The flip side of course is that you shouldn't spend money until it's been well planned out. Ongoing civil infrastructure projects (i.e. shovel ready) were a good first target as most communities are ready to go but just lack funding.
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Also, a lot of politicians that helped Obama, got a lot of their pet projects into that bill. kind of like a "thank you present".
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Certainly the Dems took the opportunity to spend money on projects they've not been able to for quite some time. I would have liked to see a lot of this eliminated and the actual stim bill be about 1/2 as large. I did think doing something was in order.
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Not Spent At All? Once the government has it, it may not be spent on its intended purpose, but IT WILL BE SPENT! No freaking chance in hell it will come back to the taxpayers!
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My guess is that if the Republicans eliminate the Dem super majority in the mid-term elections, which is very likely, there will be room to make some changes. I doubt they'd be able to kill the rest of the spending (as Obama would simply VETO the new bill) but they will have the muscle to negotiate how it's appropriated. Obama will be looking for a second term and will need to cooperate more with the GOP so he doesn't get boxed in...just like Clinton did.
-spence