The European Social Welfare State Bill

That's what the corner is calling The American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009.

It’s easy to go through a huge proposal and find what seem like fairly ridiculous line items, so I’ll focus on as comprehensive a view as I can of the spending. The CBO reviews each Title (basically, spending area) of the bill, and calls out major items within each Title. Here are all the items that I saw them identify as individual programs with more than $10 billion of projected outlays, in the order that they call them out:

• $20.0 billion to increase the maximum benefit under the Supplemental Nutrition Assurance Program (i.e., Food Stamps)
  
• $18.5 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs
  
• $20.4 billion for programs administered by the Department of health and Human Services
  
• $20.0 billion to renovate elementary and secondary schools
  
• $17.6 billion for Pell grants and other student financial assistance at post-secondary institutions
  
• $29.1 billion for other elementary and secondary educational programs
  
• $30.0 billion for highway construction
  
• $13.1 billion for other transportation programs
  
• $11.2 billion for housing assistance programs administered by HUD
  
• $19.5 billion (minimum, could be higher, as per Title XIII) for education grants to states
  
• $27.1 billion for increase unemployment benefits
  
• $13.3 billion to increase health insurance for unemployed workers
  
• $11.1 billion for “Other Unemployment Compensation”
  
• $20.2 billion for Medicaid and Medicare incentive payments to encourage providers to improve healthcare IT
  

What does this sound like to you? It sounds to me like a wish list for the left wing of the Democratic Party.