ficsal stimulus

Chris Edley comes up with a smart way to assist the states in managing their fiscal challenges -- advance them the money, but don't give it away.  From his op-ed in The New York Times:

Here’s how this would work. States already receive regular federal matching grants to help pay for Medicaid, welfare, highway construction programs and more. For instance, the federal government pays a share of state Medicaid costs, from 50 percent to more than 75 percent, depending on a state’s wealth. The matching rates were temporarily sweetened by last year’s stimulus.

But Congress should pass legislation that would allow a state to simply get an “advance” on these future federal dollars expected from entitlement programs. The advance could then be used for regional stimulus, to continue state services and to hasten our recovery.

This afternoon, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters, " Well, I would describe tomorrow as not the totality of all the president's ideas. The president will discuss a few ideas that he has heard in his discussions with CEOs and small businesses. I think, obviously, one of the things the president talked about today was that even as -- even as things are getting better for larger banks, that there are many, many small businesses throughout the country that still have a lot of problems in getting access to the type of credit that they were normally getting before the economic -- the great economic downturn.  We are looking at ways that would help small businesses get that credit; find access to that capital. And the president will discuss other ways that he believes the government can assist the private sector in an atmosphere that leads to additional hiring and jobs."