President Obama signed the $787 billion stimulus bill into law on Tuesday in what is being hailed as a landmark achievement.
The 1,073-page bill package includes $308.3 billion in spending, $267 billion for social services, and $212 billion in tax breaks. It aims to create or save 3.5 million jobs and help families pay for things like food, housing and health care, and it offers aid to some college students.
It includes a $14 billion tax credit for higher education expenses and provides $100 billion for education, including $15 billion to increase Pell Grants for low-income students by $500 to $4,860.
Freshman James Garcia, who receives the federal grant, said he supports the stimulus package.
"It's good to know that (Obama) is willing to help students like us in New Mexico," Garcia said. "I personally could use the extra help along the way for bills and things like that."
Junior Amber Huskie said she voted for Obama hoping he would pass a stimulus package that would help her stay in school.
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"I'm going to be going back to school, and I'm going to need more money because of the economy and all of that . and I just think that (the stimulus package) is a great thing," she said.
But Allen Montgomery Parkman, UNM professor emeritus in the Anderson School of Management, said the package sets a dangerous precedent.
Because money for the stimulus plan is borrowed, Parkman said the plan is taking away capital that could have otherwise gone to the private sector.
"One thing that is not being adequately addressed is that every single dollar you've heard about is being borrowed, and that money is not under people's mattresses; it's out there in the capital markets potentially to be used by people for credit card purchases or businesses for investements," Parkman said. "Every time the government spends a dollar - or, in this case, a billion - it sucks up these funds that could have otherwise been used by people somewhere for something (that) reduces investment in other activities, and the net effect is not really clear."
Parkman is not alone in his opposition to the stimulus plan. Seven congressional Democrats joined the Republican caucus in opposition to the bill. Concerns about the plan revolve around the fact that it will drastically increase the national debt.
Obama has said that the plan is not the solution to all the economic problems the nation faces.
"I don't want to pretend that today marks the end of our economic problems. Nor does it constitute all of what we have to do to turn our economy around," he said Tuesday. "But today does mark the beginning of the end, the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the wake of layoffs."
