This is a trip to document stimulus projects across the country. Wait, no. Forget I said that. Obama would prefer me to say it's a trip to document Recovery Act projects across the country. Wait, no, I can't call it that, either. Because if I call the stimulus the Recovery Act, then I'm going to be explicitly siding with Obama. And if I call the Recovery Act the stimulus, then I'm going to be explicitly defying Obama.

And so yet another game of Washington semantics has lent regular words a second meaning. A few months ago I was in Washington doing a profile of Obama's green jobs czar for TBM, and he emphatically declared that there was no stimulus. There was only the Recovery Act. This whole $787 billion thing isn't about a shot in the arm, it's about a sustainable rebuilding of the country and its infrastructure.

Or at least that's what it's supposed to be about. And, in a way, that's what Recessionary Road is trying to shed light upon. Is this a stimulus or a Recovery Act? And is there really that much of a difference between the two?