Spending Stimulus Money Takes Money

With the national unemployment rate rising last month to 9.4 percent, a growing criticism is that the stimulus package is not having the desired effect of creating jobs, a perception President Obama and Vice President Biden addressed this week with a vow to accelerate the spending. One reason the full weight of the money has not been felt faster across the country, though, may be that a bureaucracy takes time -- and money -- to gear up in the capital. At one level, even spending on administrative overhead meets the most basic purpose of the package: to get money into the economy. But of the areas that most need a boost, greater Washington is pretty much at the bottom of the list. While unemployment rises elsewhere, it has declined in the region for the past two months, to 5.6 percent, the lowest of any major metro area.