Alabama Democrat defecting to the GOP

[Sheilbh]

Interesting.  Where did you get the info on stimulus disbursements from?

I think I read it somewhere on the Cato Institute's website.  But if you look at the recovery.gov website you can see things that sort-of make that clear.  For example there's a total of $288billion in the stimulus for tax rebates.  Yet, from the start they've been planning only around $95 billion from March-October 09:
http://www.recovery.gov/News/featured/Pages/TaxReliefOct2009.aspx

Edit:  Incidentally does anyone know whether the budget deficit figure ($1.4 trillion I think) is accurate for what's been spent.  For example TARP was given $700 billion at the discretion of the Treasury Secretary, so far $364 billion has been spent but not much more is expected to be spent.  So does the deficit include the $700 billion figure that Congress has set aside for spending if so needed, or the $350 billion actually spent?  I believe money set aside for potential emergency bailouts is also around $200 billion less than Congress prepared for.