The House has come to an agreement with the Senate on the economic recovery package being heavily pushed by President Barack Obama, achieving the goal of having a finalized bill by the weekend.

With votes 246-183 largely partisan, the stimulus bill was passed at a total estimated cost of $787 billion U.S., marking record time for the development, negotiation and finalization of such a large-scale bill.

None of the affirmative votes were made by House Republicans, while seven Democrats are marked as voting against the bill.

Friday evening a vote was held with the Senate to pass the House’s final copy of the bill - which was met with the 60 votes necessary to see it pass, meaning the bill goes to the President’s desk for final approval, approval, which, with the President’s eager attitude towards the stimulus package is unlikely to be questioned.

The Senate’s Republicans were a little more fiscally liberal - three Republicans, Collins (Me.), Snow (Me.), Specter (Pa.) - voted for it. The partisanship in what President Obama hoped would be a bipartisan attempt to “economically save the nation” quickly became clear as early revisions of the bill came in to play where fiscally conservative political individuals were vehemently opposed to the high levels of spending - likely to cause a further depreciating dollar and increased inflation - and furthermore, the targets; claiming that tax breaks and raw infrastructure projects would be more beneficial.

“The goal at the heart of this plan is to create jobs. Not just any jobs, but jobs doing the work America needs done: repairing our infrastructure, modernizing our schools and hospitals, and promoting the clean, alternative energy sources that will help us finally declare independence from foreign oil,” said the President, prior to the vote regarding the stimulus.

The bill is divided such that 39.1 per cent - or just over $300 billion - is dedicated to transfer payments towards institutions (both public and private) involved in infrastructure, education and high-tech; especially in the fields of renewable and sustainable growth and energy - a key focus of President Obama’s, and the new administration. A further 26.9 per cent comes in the form of tax relief to both individuals and business and the final 33.9 per cent will be direct government spending on everything in the way of unemployment benefits and other social programs.

Interestingly, a number of economists have responded to the size of the stimulus bill negatively, both in terms of it being too large and causing too much inflation and a group saying that, when it was pinned at $825 billion, it was too small.

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