How would the money be spent?
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4. The House plan calls for $275 billion in tax cuts and about $300 billion in aid for laid-off workers and cash-strapped states. That money would be used to expand unemployment benefits, provide health-care coverage to laid-off workers, help states facing ballooning Medicaid costs and extend large sums to states to pay for education programs and school renovations.
The House bill also includes $30 billion for roads and bridges and $10 billion for transit and intercity rail. It includes $50 billion intended to make the country more energy-efficient by updating the electric grid to make it easier to accommodate solar and wind power, and by providing for weatherizing government buildings and low-income housing. In addition, there are tax credits to encourage the growth of renewable energy.
In all, it may be less than the transformative spending package that some envisioned when Obama compared the huge plan to construction of the interstate highway system. Still, it would ramp up social spending in a way the nation has not seen in generations. Among those proposals are a temporary expansion of the earned income tax credit to subsidize the pay of low-income workers and a $500 increase in the maximum Pell Grant, which helps low-income students pay for college.
