I have an idea. How about we stop give away taxpayers' money to the corporations? The next stimulus bill could just be split up and given to each and every American. This idea of giving away my money to corporations that made poor judgements is ridiculous. The American Government is rewarding corruption! - Bob Blunk

The stimulus package didn't give money to the banks. That was done through other bills. - Alex Scoble

ya, but it gave money to every little pet project that Senators have been trying to get funded for years. Now the Federal government has more control over State Legislature. - Bob Blunk

Yeah, that's more of what I'm talking about. The stimulus needed to be huge, directed and fast. It was neither of those things. - Alex Scoble from IM

Are you saying that instead of 800 billion it should have been 3.2 trillion? - Brian Newman from iPhone

Not literally no. It should have been much larger than it was. It should have rushed money into the economy where it would do the most good and it should have been immediate. That 800 billion isn't actually 800 billion because of how it was set up. Probably more like what we needed was 1.2 trillion spent where it would create the most jobs over time and do the infrastructure the most good. What Obama sold was an 800 billion bill and what Congress actually gave us was 400 billion (or less) of real stimulus. - Alex Scoble

And the money that did flow out was split up into such little chunks that it barely provided any real relief. - Bob Blunk

I think another stimulus bill will be a real tough sell based on what a joke the first one is. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. - Brian Newman

It won't be so tough if the economy finds further weakness like how a bunch of us are expecting. - Alex Scoble

I kind of agree with Bob - the first stimulus, which would have been the only stimulus needed, should have been $50,000 to every tax paying American - problem solved, and cheaper than giving money to corporations - William Harryman

I highly doubt that kind of stimulus would have the desired effect, William. People tend to save that kind of large payout. - Alex Scoble

Alex, past statics of American spending habits say different. That is how we developed an economy based almost solely on consumer spending. - Bob Blunk

Oh and paying that much to every tax paying American would be a 7.5 trillion stimulus. - Alex Scoble

at the time the whole mess began, though, it was mortgage failures fueling the crisis, and this would have allowed many people to get our of trouble, thus stalling the collapse before it began - William Harryman

I agree with Mr. Harryman - plus it would have provided benefits to those who lost their jobs, or funded a new car (thus maybe helping the car companies), or provided money for health care, or provided a nice down payment on a house. It wouldn't have needed to be $50,000, but $5,000 per would have probably done the job (for a married couple), $3,000 for single. Some people may have saved - but oh, deposits also help banks. The key was to get money FLOWING... instead it's all tied up in "stimulus" money that seems to be doing nothing. - Vince DeGeorge

If companies were failing because they screwed up, and people couldn't pay them, then it makes more sense to me to give the stimulus to taxpayers, so they could pay the companies. Not only would this keep companies afloat, but then those companies would have fewer reasons to kick people out of their homes, take away the cars they drive to work, or shut off utilities. I'm thinking that dumping the money on the companies didn't allow struggling people to keep anything; how's that helping? - MiniMage TKDteacher of FF

Again, the stimulus bill was not pumped in to "failing businesses" the banks and AIG got money through other bills/regulatory moves. The stimulus was all about softening the landing of the economy, stabilizing the situation and investing in infrastructure where it makes the most sense. It didn't go far enough in these areas. I totally agree with Dave on this as you can see what California did with their stimulus money. Did they use it for education? No...they used it to pay their debt bill. Perfect example of where the stimulus wasn't large enough. - Alex Scoble

Krugman argued hard for a much bigger stimulus. The original one was certainly better than the compromise package, but not big enough. - Karoli