"An international mathematics research team announced today that they had discovered a new integer that surpasses any previously known value "by a totally mindblowing shitload." Project director Yujin Xiao of Stanford University said the theoretical number, dubbed a "stimulus," could lead to breakthroughs in fields as diverse as astrophysics, quantum mechanics, and Chicago asphalt contracting."
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2009/02/numbers-in-the-news.html

Maybe we do really need funds to research bear DNA. Certainly, some bridges to nowhere will help. I think we can all agree on that. This bill is so big that it is really is incomprehensible.

"There are 1011 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers." - Richard Feynman, US educator & physicist (1918 -
1988)

I have serious doubts that borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars to spend is a good idea. I really don't think the Congress or Senate has any idea what investments have a positive net present value. Even if they do know, there is a temptation to get as much as possible for your district whether or not it makes sense economically. This stimulus bill was sold as a way to modernize infrastructure while putting people to work. This is a dubious reason at best, jobs are a cost. Labor is like a machine or raw material in the production process. Using that input takes it out of the economy and from another productive use. Opportunity cost, opportunity cost, opportunity cost. Parts of this bill are entitlements, which probably have no realistic end in sight. So, much of this stimulus may not be reigned in when it outlives its usefulness.

"Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! " -- Ronald Reagan

Take some time to watch this speech or read the text of it.