The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ? the stimulus bill ? was supposed to be about jobs, we?ve been told.

TIME?s Michael Grunwald must have missed the mainstream media memo that suggested avoiding any mention of other motivating factors behind the stimulus bill:

[T]he battle over the Recovery Act’s short-term rescue has obscured its more enduring mission: a long-term push to change the country. It was about jobs, sure, but also about fighting oil addiction and global warming, transforming health care and education, and building a competitive 21st century economy. Some Republicans have called it an under-the-radar scramble to advance Obama’s agenda ? and they’ve got a point.

Yes, it is precisely this aspect of the stimulus bill ? along with skepticism about its short-run job implications ? that has caused a public backlash.