This is Robert Pear, writing in today's New York Times:
Altogether, the economic recovery bill would speed $127 billion over the next two and a half years to individuals and states for health care alone.
The specifics:
$87 billion increasing spending on Medicaid
$11 billion in Medicaid benefits for the unemployed
$29 billion subsidized COBRA benefits, allowing people to remain in their previous employer's health plan.
And this doesn't count the extra cost of COBRA to employers – making future employment and, in particular, future employer-based health insurance more expensive.
This is Alan Reynolds, writing in today's Wall Street Journal:
The December unemployment rate was only 2.3% for government workers and 3.8% in education and health. Unemployment rates in manufacturing and construction, by contrast, were 8.3% and 15.2% respectively. Yet 39% of the $550 billion in the bill would go to state and local governments. Another 17.3% would go to health and education — sectors where relatively secure government jobs are also prevalent.
It's "the only field that showed significant job gains in November, and the one with the most jobs openings." See Diana Furchtgott-Roth editorial here.
