This Sunday many New York Times readers will read that our country spent $787 billion on an economic experiment or test model of sorts. You know that test model by the name of the stimulus bill.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio outdid himself in the fund-raising quarter that ended Sept. 30, raising $5 million in the three-month period to break the record he set last quarter for highest quarterly fund-raising haul in Florida history.

This week the Senate spent most of its time deciding whether the financial reform bill was ready for prime time on the Senate floor. The Senate GOP made several demands for concessions to alter or drop some large provisions contained in the bill.