The nascent administration of US President Barack Obama had their first big victory in Congress and celebrated the newly passed $787 billion economic stimulus bill as a “major milestone on our road to recovery.” The House vote was 246-183. The legislation, among the costliest ever considered in the Congress, allocates 120 billion dollars to infrastructure spending, including money for highways. It also features nearly 20 billion dollars for renewable energy and 11 billion to modernize the US electrical grid as a major down payment on Obama’s strategy for fighting climate change.

The most welcomed inclusions are the tax cuts — expected to benefit 95 percent of US families — and tens of billions of dollars for extending unemployment benefits, bolstering healthcare for the least well-off and funds to help cash-strapped states avoid cuts in services like education.

As expected, criticism was bound to emerge from various sectors, especially from the Republicans. Hours earlier, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell offered a different prediction for a bill he said was loaded with wasteful spending. “A stimulus bill that was supposed to be timely targeted and temporary is none of the above,” he said in remarks on the Senate floor. “And this means Congress is about to approve a stimulus that’s unlikely to have much stimulative effect.”

As Obama cautioned, “the problems that led us into this crisis are deep and widespread”. So it will be quite some time before we know how effectively the stimulus package serves the US economy.

Via : Yahoo news