by Calculated Risk on 2/07/2009 11:25:00 PM

From the NY Times: Congress Is Divided Over Competing Stimulus Bills

The price tag for the Senate plan is now only slightly more than the $820 billion cost of the measure adopted by the House.
...
But the competing bills now reflect substantially different approaches. The House puts greater emphasis on helping states and localities avoid wide-scale cuts in services and layoffs of public employees. The Senate cut $40 billion of that aid from its bill, which is expected to be approved Tuesday.

The Senate plan, reached in an agreement late Friday between Democrats and three moderate Republicans, focuses somewhat more heavily on tax cuts, provides far less generous health care subsidies for the unemployed and lowers a proposed increase in food stamps.

This might be a serious problem since the differences are significant.