After a contentious debate period, the Senate voted (61-37) last night to end debate on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (HR 1), or "ARRA." Today, the Senate moved to approve the bill, with an identical vote tally.

Although the media are calling the bill an $838 billion economic-stimulus plan, it's really more like a $768 billion stimulus with a $70 billion-hitchhiker AMT patch. As we've noted, an AMT patch is not stimulative, and including its cost as part of the stimulus bill is misleading. First, by enacting the patch, tax revenues remain the same as the previous year, resulting in no economic changes compared to last year. Second, the patch would have been passed (unpaid for, naturally) regardless.

So, the proper cost comparison is: $819 billion (House) vs. $768 bilion (Senate) -- a $51 billion difference.

And, the Senate Finance Committee has released a side-by-side comparison of the two bills. I'm not sure if it's comprehensive -- it's only five pages -- but it does include information on tax policy, health care, unemployment insurance, and trade policies.

Image by Flickr user mishox used under a Creative Commons license.