[lokken]

Although what dda says is partially true. Even to Keynesians (and I've been reading a lot of Paul Krugman lately) the stimulus package is a bit of a mess (and what Krugman passes over is that some dems are largely to blame). If it is to be a true stimulus package, it lacks the focus and amount of spending required to be truly successful. There should have been more thought put into the bill and while the republicans are right to demand accountability, their pretext for being opposed is entirely insane. In some respects their motives are undermining the only valuable part of their argument.

While the New Deal prevented the worst of the great depression, it arguably didn't solve the financial crisis until world war two came along with massive investment and consequential employment. This stimulus package is firmly in the New Deal category. If the US wants to seriously get itself out of this mess it needs to invest in new industries that will create new jobs. Because some jobs just aren't going to come back. If anything the more crazy and more ambitious the project the better - something like 100% renewable/nuclear energy within a decade, for example.

I prefer to think of stimulus packages in terms of what you want after the recession rather than all the economic monsters you want to stop. People should look to define 3 things that would benefit the economy as a whole and really focus the stimulus on them. Even if you didn't rejuvenate the economy as much as you wanted, you would at least be left with stuff that's actually useful to people. In some ways, depression 2.0 is a massive opportunity.