"The Overlap is 90-plus Percent"

That was Larry Summers' argument for why we shouldn't worry too much about the differences between the House and Senate stimulus bills. But it's worth noting that the psychological threshold of 90 percent doesn't apply in lots of other situations. Observing that "92.4 percent of the of the labor force was employed in January" will reassure no one. And the fact that there is 90 percent overlap between the House and Senate bills shouldn't be reassuring either.


The ten percent difference between the House and Senate reflects a difference in how tens of billions of dollars will be allocated. Some of those allocations will do about as much to stimulate the economy as a pair of jumper cables. It is a difference worth bickering over -- not ad infinitum, but at least for a bit.