From the Reason Magazine blog comes this brilliant insight on so-called economic stimulus:

That seems to be the theory underlying the "stimulus" package: We can't depend on consumers to spend money they don't have on stuff they don't need, so the government has to do it for them. Given the incentives and conditions that politicians face, it's more likely that they are trying to mitigate short-term pain (or at least be perceived as doing so), even if that means imposing greater costs on Americans in the long run.