We Could Have Written It On A Cocktail Napkin

over beers at the corner tavern. That's what an insider once told me about the Medicare Prescription Drug Plan.
Commenter Arps says he got the whole stimulus solution in 5 minutes. Give it a try if you want. But remember, you still have to convince Sens. Nelson, Collins, Snow and Specter.
Ay, there's the rub, mate.

Your link in the last sentence of your piece on the economic stimulus package takes you to the Center for American Progress website where they have a "Design Your Own Stimulus Package Interactive program. Thought I would give it a try and in less than 5 minutes I had a stimulus package of $540 billion that created (or saved) over 4 million jobs. I had %100 billion for State block grants and extended unemployment and food stamp benefits by more than is in either the Senate or House bill and no personal income tax relief for anyone (Hey, if I don't get any, nobody gets any).

If I can do this with about 2/3rds of the Congressional plans, maybe I should be in Washington on the advisory team. Go home, Larry Summers. Maybe I should have stuck with economics instead of bureaucratic paper shuffling.