CBO:Only 23% of Stimulus to be Spent in this Fiscal Year

Only 23 Percent of Stimulus Will be Spent This Fiscal Year, Congressional Budget Office Finds

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
By Matt Cover

(CNSNews.com) – Less than one-quarter -- 23 percent -- of the $787-billion stimulus package that President Obama signed Tuesday will be spent in fiscal year 2009, according to an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

The fiscal year runs through the end of September, with fiscal 2010 beginning on Oct. 1, 2009.

Many of the programs in bill signed on Tuesday will not take full effect for years, the CBO report finds, with some only entering into force beyond fiscal 2010, a time when many economists predict the recession will have ended.

Of the $787 billion total, $184.9 billion will be spent in the remaining months of fiscal year 2009, $399.4 billion will be spent in FY 2010, $134.4 billion in FY 2011, $36.1 billion in FY 2012, $27.6 billion in FY 2013, $22.4 billion in FY 2014, and $4.7 billion in FY 2015. After 2015, the tax cut provisions of the bill are projected to increase government revenue by a few billion each year until 2019.

Though just over 74 percent of the stimulus money is projected to be spent by the end of fiscal year 2010, data published by the Federal Reserve predicts the current recession will end in late 2009, or early 2010.

Some of the long-term spending proposals are the same ones Democratic congressional leaders have claimed would create jobs immediately and provide assistance to states and Americans hurt during the recession.

Spending proposals designed to create jobs and help turn the economy around – programs like road building and “greenâ€