MICHAEL GRUNWALD MAKES A MUCH BETTER CASE FOR THE STIMULUS THAN THE SAVED/CREATED CONTORTIONS

TIME magazine - “How the Stimulus Is Changing America: Voters hate it. Hardly anyone wants credit for it. But the $787 billion stimulus is quietly changing the way Americans work, move, innovate and plug in”: “[I]n the words of Vice President Joe Biden, Obama's effusive Recovery Act point man, 'Now the fun stuff starts!' The 'fun stuff,' about one-sixth of the total cost, is an all-out effort to exploit the crisis to make green energy, green building and green transportation real; launch green manufacturing industries; computerize a pen-and-paper health system; promote data-driven school reforms; and ramp up the research of the future. 'This is a chance to do something big, man!' Biden said during a 90-minute interview with TIME. For starters, the Recovery Act is the most ambitious energy legislation in history, converting the Energy Department into the world's largest venture-capital fund. It's pouring $90 billion into clean energy, including unprecedented investments in a smart grid; energy efficiency; electric cars; renewable power from the sun, wind and earth; cleaner coal; advanced biofuels; and factories to manufacture green stuff in the U.S.” http://bit.ly/dgKgux