IT'S A PRETTY SIMPLE ARGUMENT.

Is it just me, or is Steve Pearlstein making sense?

Spending is stimulus, no matter what it's for and who does it. The best spending is that which creates jobs and economic activity now, has big payoffs later and disappears from future budgets.

Normally Pearlstein is sort of a ridiculous person, and we should be at great pains to point out that he is not actually an economist himself. But he seems to understand the basics here more than most conservative members of congress. On that note, it behooves me to reiterate again that the "centrist" plan to take state budget aid out of the stimulus is a terrible, terrible idea; that funding has a large GDP multiplier and is necessary to the central purpose of the bill. If you're looking to trim, trim the $30 billion in tax breaks for purchasing homes and cars, both of which are regressive and unnecessary, especially the home purchase tax break.

-- Tim Fernholz