Summary Provisions of $789 billion Stimulus Package

AP, 12-Feb-09

Many provisions of the nearly $789 billion compromise stimulus plan expire in two years. Additional debt costs would add about $330 billion over 10 years.

Highlights:

Aid to poor and unemployed
$40 billion to provide extended unemployment benefits through Dec. 31, and increase them by $25 a week; $20 billion to increase food-stamp benefits by 14%; $3 billion in temporary welfare payments.

Direct cash payments
$14 billion to give one-time $250 payments to Social Security recipients, poor people on Supplemental Security Income, and veterans receiving disability and pensions.

Infrastructure
$46 billion for transportation projects, including $27 billion for highway and bridge construction and repair; $8.4 billion for mass transit; $8 billion for construction of high-speed railways and $1.3 billion for Amtrak; $4.6 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers; $4 billion for public housing improvements; $6.4 billion for clean- and drinking-water projects; $7 billion to bring broadband Internet service to underserved areas.

Health care
$21 billion to provide a 60% subsidy of health care insurance premiums for the unemployed under the COBRA program; $87 billion to help states with Medicaid; $19 billion to modernize health information technology systems; $10 billion for health research and construction of National Institutes of Health facilities.

State block grants
$5 billion in aid to states to use as they please to defray budget cuts.

Education
$54 billion in state fiscal relief to prevent cuts in state aid to school districts, with up to $10 billion for school repair; $26 billion to school districts to fund special education and the No Child Left Behind law for students in K-12; $17 billion to boost the maximum Pell Grant by $500 to $5,350; $2 billion for Head Start.

Homeland security
$2.8 billion for homeland security programs, including $1 billion for airport screening equipment.

Law enforcement
$4 billion in grants to state and local law enforcement to hire officers and purchase equipment.

Taxes
New tax credit
About $115 billion for $400 per-worker, $800 per-couple tax credits in 2009 and 2010. Credit phases out for individuals with adjusted gross incomes of $75,000 to $90,000 and couples with AGI of $150,000 to $190,000.

Alternative minimum tax
About $70 billion to spare about 24 million taxpayers from being hit with the alternative minimum tax in 2009. The change would save a family of four an average of $2,300.

Expanded college credit
About $13 billion to provide a $2,500 expanded tax credit for college tuition and related expenses for 2009 and 2010. The credit is phased out for couples with incomes over $160,000.

Home buyer credit
$3.7 billion to repeal a requirement that an $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit be paid back over time for homes purchased from Jan. 1 to Aug. 31, unless the home is sold within three years.

Bonus depreciation
$5 billion to extend a provision allowing businesses buying equipment such as computers to speed up depreciation through 2009.

Auto sales
$2.5 billion to make sales tax paid on new car purchases tax deductible.