But in this case, even though the so-called "stimulus" money is engaging some equipment that might otherwise be idle (a debatable point), the money being paid back to the banks is being sucked up by the federal government at an alarming rate. Thus, even though those contractors might be paying off some debt, they're not able to borrow new funds because the overspending by the governmment has really tightened available credit for the Mom & Pop's. Same thing happened during the 1930's under the Hoover/Roosevelt policies, and it ended up making the Great Depression the decade long debacle that it was.

Yes, we all see the irony of it all.........