The Check's in the Mail

Struggling states will receive the first round of economic relief within two days, President Obama announced this morning. As part of the recently passed stimulus package, $15 billion will be distributed to states to cover Medicaid payments. Speaking to the National Governors Association, Obama took direct aim at Republican governors who have criticized a tax increase on employers. "If we agree on 90 percent of this stuff, and we're spending all our time on television arguing about 1, 2, 3 percent of the spending in this thing, and somehow it's being characterized in broad brush as wasteful spending, that starts sounding more like politics. And that's what right now we don't have time to do," Obama said.