"But congressional negotiators have since trimmed billions of dollars from the package to satisfy Senate Republicans, diminishing its potential for job creation along with its overall cost. With the House poised to vote as early as today on the measure, analysts are slashing their estimates of its ability to counteract a deepening recession, with several prominent economists now saying the package will save or create fewer than 2.5 million jobs by the end of next year."
Of course, in reality, Democrats have been at the helm of crafting this legislation from the very beginning. Any cuts that have been made have been made because Democrats wanted those cuts. If $100 billion in cuts cost 1.5 million jobs, one has to wonder if Democrats cut only jobs and left other spending untouched in the bill. After all, the final “jobs” bill reportedly funds things like $30 million for mouse habitat in San Francisco, $2.5 million for a water slide and wave pool in Indiana and $300 million for hybrid cars for government workers, including golf carts for federal workers. These things could have went toward bringing the overall cost of the bill down without costing more than a million jobs.
For more waste to be cut without losing jobs, Democrats could have looked here and here.
