The Senate passed a $149 billion in jobless aid and tax breaks. On a side note, I just read that the 3 richest men in the world have $53.5 billion (Carlos Slim), $53 billion (Bill Gates), and $47 billion (Warren Buffett). You see where I’m going with this.

This is a lot of money. It’s coming out of our own pockets, essentially, because the tax breaks mean we’ll be missing the money later and the giveaways mean that we’ll hold less value later. And the crazy part is that with around 300 million people in the U.S., that works out to like $4.50 per person. I mean, not that that’s how it works, but it’s crazy to think about. What if they just sent checks for $4.50 to everyone. Or envelopes with the money in it. Jingle jingle with the fifty cents.

Oh, come on...

This bill passed the House of No by a vote of 62 to 36- who said they can’t do a bipartisan anything? This is great news, right?

Well, the House still has to pass it. Come on now, Ms. Pelosi.

Obama is psyched:

"I am grateful to senators in both parties who took one more step forward today in getting our nation back on a solid economic footing," said the President in a statement.

Exactly how does handing out that much money get us back on solid economic footing again???

Last year’s stimulus bill was around $863 billion. Everybody was whining about that one. Bottom line, right?: Give me a job that pays the bills and don’t raise my taxes and you’ve got my vote. That’s the deal for most people. What we have now is a situation where everyone is seeing the opposite- you’re going to raise my taxes and I probably can’t find a job anymore?

For me, I understand the economics to a point- investment means job creation. Ok, I get it. But let’s face the facts, here: We have been systematically getting rid of manufacturing jobs for decades. We can’t just make them up out of nowhere now. And that’s where a lot of the job loss has been. Manufacturing, construction, and other trade work. Am I wrong on this? I guess I’m not positive, but I am pretty sure.

We don’t do things ourselves as much as we used to, and to get back on a solid economic footing we will have to do that just as much as we have to throw money at it. While the U.S. has been the country pushing globalization for so long, the truth is that it is coming back to bite us in the old red, white and blue behind like a shark that smells its own blood (do sharks smell? What do they do?...) 

This bill will make a cool $1 trillion thrown at this recession. Has it worked? It’s worked wonders for the stock market. Even foreclosures are going down.

But creating jobs? That part seems less certain- still hovering at 9.7% last time I checked. Let’s remember we have to change our minds as well as change our money.

Photo Credit: DavidDMuir (via Flickr under CCL)