Richard Kraneis Blog

Economic Stimulus Package in Detail

Stimulus Package Basic Info

Many people still want to know the contents of the Stimulus package that was passed earlier this month and signed by President Obama.  So here's my best non-political guide to the Stimulus.

The real name of the bill is not Stimulus Package but rather American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  It's a long name but that's the official name.  The bill was signed by President Obama on February 17, 2009 and also goes by the acronym of ARRA.

The bill was signed for $787,000,000,000.  That's 787 billion dollars.

The Official White House Info:  http://www.recovery.gov/

The White House has created a web page for information on the bill and its located at http://www.recovery.gov/.

The http://www.recovery.gov/site is produced by the White House (not Congress) and announces its own efforts at transparency.  So what can you find at http://www.recovery.gov/?

1)  You can find a simple bar chart of categories of money to be spent within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  The bar chart is on the home page of the site under the topic Where is your Money Going.  The chart is simple, useful, but meant for a younger audience.

2)  You'll find a link on the Recovery.gov home page in a section named On Our Way:  Read the Bill pointing you to another web page where you can find the full text of the ARRA 2009 Bill.  The bill itself is 407 pages long.  If you want to see it immediately, click ARRA 2009 PDF.

Transparency Problems.

This isn't political, just informational, perhaps you'll agree with me.

1)  Neither http://www.recovery.gov/nor the White House has published an Excel spreadsheet of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  I've searched the Internet for an Excel spreadsheet of the Stimulus and the closest I can find is my own spreadsheet of the Senate version of this bill (Senate Bill was for $801 billion, final bill was $787 billion) on my blog:  Senate Stimulus Bill

2)  The actual bill in PDF format, the 407 page bill, isn't searchable.  Most PDF files are searchable but this the PDF for the public at ARRA 2009 PDFis not searchable.

3)  It's hard comprehending the Stimulus Bill 2009 when its in billions of dollars.  I suggest the White House (and Congress) use a CPT or Cost per Taxpayer value.  For example, $787 billion dollars / 300 million Americans is $ 2624.34 not including interest.  That means that ARRA 2009 cost every single American $ 2624.34.  It will be more with interest on the loan.  If you'd like to learn more, my blog at Stimulus Cost per Taxpayer has a spreadsheet so you can calculate your portion of  the Stimulus Bill for 2009.

4)  Information on the ARRA 2009 is either the very simple bar chart at http://www.recovery.gov/ or the incredibly long, non-searchable PDF at ARRA 2009 PDF.  We need an Excel spreadsheet of this bill.

What Can you Do?

Whether Democrat, Republican, or Independent, I think its laudable that the White House is making an effort at transparency.  Let's give them a little more help.

Go to the White House and give them this simple feedback:

We appreciate the White House's attempt at transparency and we encourage it.  Please provide a downloadable Excel spreadsheet of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for Recovery.org.  Secondly, make the ARRA 2009 bill a searchable PDF file.  Finally, a Cost per Taxpayer number would be useful at www.Recovery.org.  Thank you.

Finally

Thanks for reading this blog.  I do hope you use it to give the White House your feedback.  As for me, I'm neither a Republican nor a Democrat, I'm an independent voter from Chicago, IL.

2009 Stimulus Package Spreadsheet

Where is the 2009 Stimulus spreadsheet?  Or do you call it the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 spreadsheet?

The White House has recently created a website named Recovery.gov that has the full text of the signed 2009 Stimulus Bill and simple graphs of monies to be spent.  But no detailed Excel spreadsheet of the bill.

Whether Democrat, Republican, or Independent, it's nice to see a timely attempt at explaining the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  I certainly commend President Obama at making this information available.

But for transparency, give me the actual detailed spreadsheet.  I'll crunch the numbers myself.

One of the categories of the 2009 Stimulus at Recovery.gov is named Protecting the Vulnerable.  The category will receive 81 billion dollars.  I don't think that the phrase Protecting the Vulnerable is very transparent.  Just give us a detailed spreadsheet so we can analyze it.

Analyzing a government spreadsheet isn't rocket science.  (It's coming to agreement on the bill that's hard.)  Earlier this month I analyzed the U.S. Senate Stimulus Spreadsheet after the Senate created their plan.

So if President Obama can instruct his website team to provide the 2009 Stimulus spreadsheet and post it to Recovery.gov, those of us who understand spreadsheets can get that "transparency thing" moving for him.

If you'd like to encourage the White House to provide a detailed Excel spreadsheet of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, go to the White House Feedback Form, fill out the request form, and submit your 2009 Stimulus spreadsheet request to the White House.

In case you're wondering, the 2009 Stimulus was an unfunded bill that is owed by every American, sometime in the future.  Government debt will be issued and sold to cover the bill and your federal taxes will go towards paying the interest on the debt and paying down the principal (we hope).

The 2009 Stimulus (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) will cost every man, woman, and child $ 2624.34 .  How do you get that number?  Take 787 billion dollars and divide by 300 million which is the approximate population of the U.S.  Your calculator may not be able to do it.  You'll need a spreadsheet.

Your bill for the 2009 Stimulus will be $ 2624.34 as of today.  Since the U.S. government just "charged" you $ 2624.34 for the 2009 Stimulus, you and I will be paying for that Stimulus as the years go by, with interest.

Don't forget.  Go to the White House Feedback Form and ask/demand that a detailed spreadsheet of the 2009 Stimulus be posted at Recovery.gov.

Thanks everyone.  (In case you're wondering, I'm neither Democrat nor Republican.  I'm an Independent.)

Your 2009 Stimulus Credit Card Charge - $7,064.20

Give me 5 minutes and I can prove your 2009 Stimulus credit charge will be just over $7000.

I'm an Independent and voted for President Obama.  I'm also glad there's enough Republicans in Congress to make democracy work in Washington,  D.C.  This 2009 Stimulus bill is a nasty business.

Do you know how much the Stimulus will cost you personally?  Your personal credit card with the federal government?

Today, the L.A. Times says that the Stimulus compromise is estimated at 789 billion dollars.

There just over 300 million Americans of which 27% are under the age of 20, and probably not paying a whole lot of taxes (they get tax refunds).

Of the people who pay taxes, the National Taxpayers Union believes that 50% of all wage earners pay 97% of the taxes.

You build a Download Stimulus Bill per Taxpayer spreadsheet of all this and you'll find that only 111 million of Americans will actually pay the taxes for the 2009 Stimulus.

If you're over 20 years of age and earn over $35,000 per year, I estimate your Stimulus bill will be just over $7000.  That doesn't include interest and/or overspending.

Don't believe me?  Play with the numbers on my spreadsheet at   .

Remember I voted for President Obama, I'm an Independent, I'm from Chicago, I want the President and Congress to do well.

What scares the daylights out of me is that my Stimulus Bill spreadsheet doesn't include the 2008 Bailout, Geitner's 2 trillion dollar estimate, or the fact we are trying theories on a massive scale that have never been tried before (sorry FDR wasn't immediately a Keynesian, read history).

Ultimately what scares me is that the White House and Congress are avoiding providing Stimulus spreadsheets that show where the money is spent or your Download Stimulus Bill per Taxpayer .

What do I want out of this?  I want the President and Congress to provide simple spreadsheets and the truth that the Stimulus will cost taxpaying Americans $7000 (actually more when you add the interest on the loan).  Give me the truth, that's all I want.

2009 Stimulus Package in Excel Spreadsheet Format

Too bad neither the White House nor Congress provide a simple downloadable spreadsheet of the proposed Stimulus bill.  They do provide a downloadable 700 page PDF file of their work but no spreadsheet.

I have searched the Internet for a simple downloadable spreadsheet of the proposed 2009 Stimulus package, and I couldn't find any from any source until today.

But courtesy of Anderson Coope's blog at http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/02/10/the-stimulus-bills-house-vs-senate/ and Michael Grabell's article at http://www.propublica.org/special/the-stimulus-bills-house-vs.-senate I think I finally have an easy spreadsheet to understand that depicts the Stimulus plan of 2009 as of February 10, 2009.

Michael Grabell is part of www.propublica.org and their article at http://www.propublica.org/special/the-stimulus-bills-house-vs.-senate helped  me to create a spreadsheet.

I copied the data from www.propublica.org and processed the data into my own spreadsheet.  There's the QC problem.  If we trust ProPublica that their original work is correct, than my spreadsheet is correct.  I'm hoping their data is correct.

Here's my downloadable spreadsheet in Excel 2003 format:  Download Stimulus Bill Spreadsheet

The spreadsheet has 5 worksheets.  Each worksheet has a yellow cell with brief comments.

1)  ProPublica.org - This is the data I downloaded from ProPublica.org on Feb 10, 2009.

2)  Stimulus Data - The first worksheet embedded totals so that when you added things up, the Stimulus looked twice as large as it should be. In this worksheet, I deleted the total lines to avoid double counting.

3)  Stimulus Data in Billions - Reading numbers with lots of zeroes can be confusing.  In this worksheet, I converted all numbers into billions.  For example, a number of 30.3 would mean 30.3 billion dollars.

4)  Senate Stimulus Pivot Table - If you know what pivot tables are, you'll be excited to use this worksheet.  If you don't understand pivot tables, just use worksheet #3.

5)  House Stimulus Pivot Table - If you know what pivot tables are, you'll be excited to use this worksheet.  If you don't understand pivot tables, just use worksheet #3.

I describe myself politically as an Independent.  So I don't think I have a political axe to grind in the Stimulus conversation.  My only complaint about the Stimulus bill is that neither the White House nor Congress has made it easy for people to understand the Stimulus with a downloadable spreadsheet.

Hopefully my 2009 Stimulus spreadsheet will help many Americans voice their support or dissent regarding the Stimulus package in Congress.  Download Stimulus Bill Spreadsheet