FINALLY, Stimulus Bill passes

The Senate finally passed President Obama's stimulus bill for a total of $787 billion on Friday, February 13. President Obama hopes that the bill will "boost an economy in freefall with a combination of government spending and tax cuts and credits" according to CNN.com.

After several revisions to the first draft of the stimulus package, it is finally broken down as follows:
$267 billion for direct spending such as food stamps and unemployment benefits
$212 billion--possibly more-- will be aimed towards tax cuts
$120 billion towards infrastructure development--this includes road and government building repairs
$100 billion to be used towards education (improvement in school technologies and the such)
$30 billion on energy projects (this encouraged a majority of the controversy as the immediate effectiveness for economy)

When the stimulus package went to the House for a vote there was no Republican support. Not much changed when it faced the Senate for the final vote, but it did manage to swipe three Republican supporters, which was all that was needed for the bill to pass. All of the Democrats in the Senate supported the package, whereas seven in the House rejected it. The bill passed through the Senate with a final vote of 60-38.

In this article, I found it interesting that they broke down exactly how individuals will be directly affected by the package:
Individuals will receive a $400 tax credit
Couples will receive an $800 tax credit
Many students will receive a $2500 tuition tax credit
First-time home buyers may qualify for up to an $8000 tax credit
Those who receive social security will receive a one time credit of $250

Although these tax credits look nice, apparently the stimulus package is only 35% tax cuts and 65% spending. But, hopefully that spending will generate all of the things President Obama anticipates. It is still estimated that this package will create somewhere between 1-3 million new jobs.