Guess what tomorrow Feb 17 is?

The one year anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Rather than give every last detail of how the money was earmarked, I will just hit the highlights.

Total Cost: $787 Billion

Tax Cuts: $288 billion, $237 Billion for individuals, $51 Billon for companies.

$4.7 billion: The first $2,400 a person receives in unemployment compensation benefits in 2009 is tax free.
$15 billion: For companies to use current losses to offset profits made in the previous five years, instead of two, thus eligible for tax refunds.
$5 billion: Bonus depreciation which extends a provision allowing businesses buying equipment such as computers to speed up its depreciation through 2009.

So the budget was for 1,958,333 people on unemployment to have the first $2,400 tax free. But roughly 4 million jobs were lost in 2009 bringing the total unemployed to 9.6 million by the rosiest of estimates but more like 13 million or more in actual numbers.


Healthcare
Total: $147.7 billion

$500 million to train healthcare personnel
$500 million for healthcare services on Indian reservations
$10 billion for health research and construction of National Institutes of Health facilities
$24.7 billion to provide a 65 percent subsidy of health care insurance premiums for the unemployed under the COBRA program
$86.6 billion for Medicaid

More than 58% of the total bill is allocated to help states with Medicaid and nearly 17% is specifically to aid the unemployed with insurance, for the first 18 months anyway. But at least the NIH gets a new building.

Education
Total: $90.9 billion

$44.5 billion in aid to local school districts to prevent layoffs and cutbacks, with flexibility to use the funds for school modernization and repair (State Equalization Fund)
$300 million for increased teacher salaries
$250 million for states to analyze student performance
$200 million to support working college students

Somehow I doubt that scantron sheets will cost $250 mil, but maybe part of it is to help working college students. Now there was 17,921,804 college student in 2006, if they all worked that would be about $11.11 each. That is not even the price of a pepperoni pizza at Papa John's. There was 49,610,000 public elementrary and high schools students in 2007. So $897 per child, but wait...that went to the schools themselves to prevent layoffs and cutbacks along with updates and repairs. And since we kept a few teachers, let's give them a raise. If average class size is 36 students per teacher that would be 1,378,055 teachers, $217.70. Bet they buy a new car.

Investment into government facilities and vehicle fleets
Total: $29.5 billion

$300 million to acquire electric vehicles for the federal vehicle fleet

While handing out money everywhere else, why not a few bucks to ourselves. They did allocate $4.97 Billion to job education, right. Well this number does not include what went to government agencies. Keep in mind that is seperate from the annual general funding bill.

$3 billion to the National Science Foundation
$2 billion to the United States Department of Energy
$1.3 billion for university research facilities
$1 billion to NASA
$600 million to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
$580 million to the National Institute of Standards and Technology
$230 million for NOAA operations, research and facilities
$140 million to the United States Geological Survey
$1.1 billion for improving airport security
$1 billion in preparation for the 2010 census
$720 million for improving security at the border and ports of entry
$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts to support artists
$50 million for the National Cemetery Administration
$4 billion to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for repairing and modernizing public housing
$1 billion to the Bureau of Reclamation for drinking water projects for rural or drought-likely areas
$750 million to the National Park Service
$650 million to the Forest Service
$515 million for wildfire prevention projects
$500 million for Bureau of Indian Affairs
$340 million to the Natural Resources Conservation Service
$320 million to the Bureau of Land Management
$280 million for National Wildlife Refuges
$280 million for the National Fish Hatchery System
$220 million to the International Boundary and Water Commission to repair flood control systems along the Rio Grande
$220 million for other public lands management agencies
$500 million to update the computer center at the Social Security Administration
$290 million to upgrade IT platforms at the State Department
$50 million for IT improvements at the Farm Service Agency

And trust me, I did not hit on half of where the money was allocated to be spent. Of course there is no real deals of exactly how the money was spent. Most I have seen is a few road signs where they were patching potholes along the interstate. And I have no idea how much those sign cost.

Originally posted by Ahabstar

$4.7 billion: The first $2,400 a person receives in unemployment compensation benefits in 2009 is tax free.

So the budget was for 1,958,333 people on unemployment to have the first $2,400 tax free. But roughly 4 million jobs were lost in 2009 bringing the total unemployed to 9.6 million by the rosiest of estimates but more like 13 million or more in actual numbers.

Unemployment isn't taxed at 100%. The average tax rate for all people in the country works out to be about 14%. 14% of $2400 is $336. $4.7 billion could cover about 14 million people at that rate.

reply to post by nataylor


I stand corrected on that figure, nice catch.