Are We Stimulated Yet?

When it's not looking for ways to shovel billions of dollars into the gaping hole that used to be Wall Street, the federal government is still handing out cash to ordinary taxpayers to stimulate the economy.

Remember the stimulus checks? President Bush arranged for them back in the spring to stave off an economic recession not unlike the one we're in the middle of right now.

The Treasury Department is still cutting checks. In September, it said it mailed out more than one million of them worth a total of $672 million.

That brought the total number of checks to just shy of 116 million since the program began in April. All together, they have put $94 billion into the hands of taxpayers, with more to come through the end of the year.

That stimulus, by the way, is a bit more than the $85 billion the government used to stimulate American International Group. And, of course, it is less than one-seventh the amount it wants to use to stimulate Wall Street.

Meanwhile, the national debt will soon top $10 trillion.

by Mark Stein

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