The discussion about the stimulus bill reminds me a lot of work experiences designing  standard operating procedures or in writing documents.  Procedures/documents  designed by a committee often seemed unwieldy at the end with no one satisfied with the outcome.  This is much like the stimulus bill.  In contrast, procedures /cocuments designed by someone with the right set of skills to understand the issues and also be willing to listen to criticism often seemed to make more sense and have a better balance.  I think a critical difference is in a consistent vision of what needs to be accomplished.  A better stimulus bill would have stayed with the original vision of a jobs creation vehicle without throwing in a lot of ideas from people who did not want the stimulus bill in the first place.