Money Well Spent? The Truth Behind the Trillion-Dollar Stimulus, the Biggest Economic Recovery Plan in History

by Grabell, Michael

• ISBN13: 9781610390095
• ISBN10: 1610390091
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-01-31
• Publisher: PublicAffairs

Summary

The 2012 presidential campaign will, above all else, be a referendum on the Obama administration's handling of the financial crisis, recalling the period when Obama's "audacity of hope" met the austerity of reality. Central to this is the ''American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009''--the largest economic recovery plan in American history. Senator Mitch McConnell gave a taste of the enormity of the money committed: if you had spent $1 million a day since Jesus was born, it still would not add up to the price tag of the stimulus package. A nearly entirely partisan piece of legislation-- Democrats voted for it, Republicans against-- the story of how the bill was passed and, more importantly, how the money was spent and to what effect, is known barely at all. Stepping outside the political fray, ProPublica's Michael Grabell offers a perceptive, balanced, and dramatic story of what happened to the tax payers' money, pursuing the big question through behind-the-scenes interviews and on-the-ground reporting in more than a dozen states across the country.

Author Biography

Michael Grabell has been a reporter at ProPublica since 2008, producing stories for USA Today, Salon, NPR, MSNBC.com and the CBS Evening News. Before joining ProPublica, he was a reporter at the Dallas Morning News. He has twice been a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists. He lives in New Jersey.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. ix
Recession
File Your Unemployment Electronically	p. 3
The Ditch	p. 17
Let's Make a Deal	p. 36
Follow the Money	p. 61
No, Thank You	p. 82
Recovery?
Shovel-Ready	p. 99
Recovery Inaction	p. 119
One Man's Waste	p. 140
Cash for Clunkers	p. 160
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs	p. 180
Reinvestment
The Green Economy	p. 209
"The Carrot That Feels Like a Stick"	p. 239
The Shellacking	p. 266
Connecting the Country	p. 293
Sputnik Moment?	p. 314
Magic Bullets	p. 339
Notes	p. 361
Credits	p. 373
Acknowledgments	p. 375
Index	p. 377
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