Yesterday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Senator Charles Schumer and Representative Charles Rangel announced that $3.4 billion was headed NYC's way in President Barack Obama's $825 billion federal stimulus package. Of course, the package needs to be passed first, but that's just a detail standing in the way of a Sunday press conference, right?
The money would be split between education funding and Medicaid, plus some money towards education infrastructure spending. According to the Post, the three officials said the Medicaid money can be used "for a variety of purposes that are not limited to Medicaid." Mayor Bloomberg was thankful to Schumer, Rangel and the Congressional delegation, but pragmatic in his remarks, "I am going to present the City's budget for the next fiscal year, and it should surprise no one that things are going to get worse for us before they better. We can't expect to discover silver bullet solutions, just like we can't expect Washington to solve all our problems. But while this package won't solve all of our New York City's budget problems, it certainly will help a lot."
Schumer added, "The stimulus package is a silver lining in the dark economic cloud looming over our city, but it's not a silver bullet." Republicans in Congress, however, are not happy with the stimulus plan—even Senator John McCain plans to vote no if the plan stays the same.
