I found these twin posts from Tyler Cowen and Daniel Drezner to be useful correctives on the stimulus. "When $100 billion no longer seems like a significant sum of money, it's time for a good stiff drink," wrote Drezner. Tyler followed up: "Yes a slightly cheaper version of the stimulus is about to pass," he said. The difference between the $900 billion stimulus being considered in the Senate and the $780 billion stimulus that passed the Senate was significant, to be sure. But much less significant than the fact that a stimulus bill that's only somewhat south of $1 trillion just passed both chambers of Congress. In the world we inhabited just six months ago, that would have been a laughable prospect. In the world we would have inhabited had John McCain won the election, an intervention like this one would never have been considered. Watching the Republicans obstruct and watching Susan Collins and Ben Nelson preen their way through this debate feels so normal that it has obscured the tremendous fact of this package.
