$850 billion?

Pres-elect Obama's team is floating the idea of a $670 to $770 billion stimulus package, which they expected could grow to $850 billion, in discussions with the Washington Post. Here's the story. I don't know about you, but that sounds like an awful lot of money to me. I know the economy's in a pretty negative down cycle, and the American consumer has reached the limit of its credit cards. So what's the government to do but try to replace consumers as the main engine of economic growth? The problem is, the government doesn't have the money to spend, either. This program may be an extremely smart gamble, but it's still a gamble with taxpayer dollars and is likely to be unpopular, especially at first. Benefits may trickle down, especially to a state like Nevada that could use some federal help to solve its own budget woes. I doubt Obama will get much credit from Nevadans, though, for saving Medicaid for our state. This much money has the potential to reshape the country, just as FDR did, for a long time to come. Social security, after all, was invented in the 1930s. It probably will come to an end in the 2030s because we won't be able to support it with tax dollars from my generation. I'm trying to avoid a knee-jerk reaction that says Yikes to spending that much money. I hope the details are worked out to make this truly an achievement along the lines of the New Deal, as opposed to a fiasco.