How the Stimulus Plan May Help You

$787 billion is a nearly unfathomable number. What does it really mean and where it all that money going? According to the official American Recovery and Reinvestment Act website the money is broken down in the following manner:

$288 billion - Tax relief
$144 billion - State and local fiscal relief
$111 billion - Infrastructure and science
$81 billion - Protecting the vulnerable
$59 billion - Health care
$53 billion - Education and training
$43 billion - Energy
$8 billion - Other

The biggest chunk of the money goes to something called "tax relief." The website defines it as including "$15 B for Infrastructure and Science, $61 B for Protecting the Vulnerable, $25 B for Education and Training and $22 B for Energy, so total funds are $126 B for Infrastructure and Science, $142 B for Protecting the Vulnerable, $78 B for Education and Training, and $65 B for Energy." That does not really make anything clearer.

The Washington Post recently broke it down in even greater detail, summarizing the payments that would go directly to individuals. The biggest portion of that money goes to Medicaid at $90 billion. This money will go directly to the states, providing a 6.2 percent increase in medical benefits for the poor over the next 27 months. It also helps bolster the COBRA program that provides health insurance for laid-off workers.

The next category of money going to individuals is $73. 8 billion in tax provisions, which includes $69 billion in tax credit payments. This is where most Americans will see some money going directly into their pockets. The Making Work Pay credit "will return up to $400 a year to individuals and $800 year to families in each of the next two years. The cash will flow into the paychecks of individual workers making less than $95,000 a year and couples who earn less than $190,000." What this really means is Americans can expect around $20 extra in their paychecks each week.

The tax provisions also include tuition tax credits and expands the child tax credit to $1000 per child.

There is $57.2 billion allocated for assistance to unemployed families and $25.1 billion going toward health insurance. There is $20.8 billion being funneled into health information technology, an Obama campaign priority of creating a nationwide network of electronic medical records. This is primarily a job creation initiative.

The rest of the money gets divided into six major categories: Transportation, Education, Science, Environment, Energy and Military. The biggest chunk goes into education related programs from helping children in poverty go to preschool to renovating schools to providing aid to needy college students. As the website states, the economic stimulus package "targets investments towards key areas that will save or create good jobs immediately, while also laying the groundwork for long-term economic growth."

The President also promises transparency and accountability. Vice President Biden has the task of overseeing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, along with former Inspector General at the Interior Department, Earl Devaney. Devaney was named head of the ARRA Accountability Board last week.

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