How can Obama claim to create 2.5 million jobs if they are work project jobs. I hope Obama decides to run this program through the privite sector.
Hey, this is hardly breaking news! You tricked me: Let's see how Barrack "the salesman" Obama will do with his New Deal. First of all, where's the minimum wage increase? Wait, I thought he said he was doing a New Deal I guess he'll help people in other ways: ENERGY: "We will launch a massive effort to make public buildings more energy-efficient. replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs" I hope that this means solar energy and wind energy, but I doubt it will. More likely this means they will install on taxpayer's money those high tech meters, which actually lose jobs since you don't need to have inspectors come over and check them anymore. And they call it a 'public investment'. Maybe I'm nitpicking.. ROADS AND BRIDGES: "Weâll invest your precious tax dollars in new and smarter ways." I have no idea what that means, we'll see. SCHOOLS: We will repair broken schools, make them energy-efficient, and put new computers in our classrooms. How about investing in teachers? In a new curriculum? Nah, but do give money to the computer makers to sell stupid computers to students, make them all rich. Has there even been a study linking computers to smarter students? BROADBAND "weâll also renew our information superhighway" Good, but I thought that those super efficient deregulated competitive telecoms were supposed to make these kinds of investments! You know, they understand the market better than anyone and invest accordingly. And they then have the audacity to think charging more for something they didn't create is their god-given right. ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS "We will make sure that every doctorâs office and hospital in this country is using cutting edge technology and electronic medical records" Why can't the for profit-hospitals make these investments themselves? I'm not on expert on the electronic medical records, but I'm sure it has to do with privacy concerns. And last I checked "cutting red tape" and "saving billions of dollars" sounds like job cuts to me. If they're suddenly so concerned with health care costs, why not make it public, or tackle expensive drugs? Oh that's right, we know why. Leave it to Obama for selling you the buttfuck you're about to receive is good for you and delivered with love. All I see is a bunch of protected monopolies and oligopolies that use taxpayer money to make capital investments to protect from foreign competition, and a lot of these investments are meant to decrease costs long term - aka shed jobs.
Why stop at $700 B, we are never going to be able to pay it back anyhow and it will all be inflated/currency depreciated away eventually so why not just do $2T, at this point $2T or $700B there really isn't much difference as far as the national debt goes but a huge difference in terms of what the money can accomplish. Have we learnt nothing from Wall Street, you fleece 'em while you can. How many IBs wish they had isssued a massive amount of bonds back in 2007 when they still could, well that is where the US is and we had better issue the debt while we still can. Even better Obama should pledge to pump $1T a year for each year of his 1st term in to all manners of projects, hopefully some of them will focus on growth.
You sound like a guy who has been around long enough to see the broken promises of more than a few administrations. Call me jaded ( I prefer realistic), but I was just amazed at how many middle aged people bought in to Obama's whole "Yes we can" nonsense. I hope he proves me wrong but nothing I have seen or heard so far suggests that he is anything other than more of the same, and even if his intentions are good (anyone from Chicago knows he is the get along to go along guy) he will be manipulated by those with decades of experience in Washington in to doing things the way they and their lobbyist masters want. LBJ he is not and it is a MFer like LBJ (why does Hilary Clinton spring to mind )is who is needed to accomplish what Obama says he wants to.
Obama may be a socialist - or he may not be. But one thing is for sure - Bush IS. That picture of him signing the bailout bill for banks is priceless (or over $1 Trillion anyway).
I agree that the government can replace the consumer as borrower/spender of last resort, when no one else is buying and the economy is collapsing. As long as the money is going to constructive, long term investments, with a economic payback, (such as the highway development program under Eisenhower), then I think it is money well spent. All of the money eventually finds its way into the private sector, and probably the same firms that were building homes (that no one wanted or needs), will now be contracted to rebuild our infrastructure. This kind of capital spending has long term utility, and will benefit several generations. Ditto for energy conservation (which will help keep dollars home), technological innovation, and educational enhancements. Better to spend money on this than on bombs that just explode, kill, destroy. Glad to see competence in back in vogue.
Lets take it 1 by 1 Energy Initiative Biggest Joke ever. Solar and Wind can at best comprise a small percentage of our energy needs. The fact is until we discover dilithium crystals, or how to make cold fusion from yesterdays garbage. Oil is the king of effeciency All this rah rah about energy is ridiculous. The government decided to kill the only energy initiative we ever had. Oil, Coal and Nuclear on the altar of the liberal earth relegion. All these new plans are subsidies to promote technologies which are not competive in the marketplace like ethanol. Free Market 0 Big Government Pipe Dream 1 Roads and Bridges Sure it would be nice to improve our roads and bridges. Except our Roads and bridges are in decent shape. This is a friggin idea from 70 years ago. OMFG. Why not launch a Homestead program too, All foreclosed homes are free to claim. We can create a line on the border of mexico and give people little white flags to claim their new properties. The amount of red tape that exists today as a road contractor is insane, lead time for projects from mock up to ashpalt starting to lay is 12-14 months. Money will be funneled to large engineering firms, KBR, Bechtel, etc. This is a great opportunity if 1) You are undocumented migrant laid off from construction 2) Road Engineer 3) Catepillar 4) Local politician who is going to receive a windfall 5) Drive a Lunch truck The rest of us could give a shit. Schools Great shiny new buildings. Again see above for who is going to benefit. I got a better idea. Give us school vochers and let these kids go to private schools, if they cant maintain a C average put them to build roads and bridges. 2 birds for one Devalued Dollar Broadband Looks like Obama wants his porn faster. I am sorry but if you cant afford $19.95/month fo a DSL lite line than go stand in line for a road construction job. Comcast is already rolling out 20/10 mbps cable nationwide. This is just a filler to make it look like he's not copying FDR. Electronic Medical Records Barrack learned from Hillary how not to nationalize healthcare. So stealth nationalization #1 lets build a giant medical dossier on every American Lets add another layer of bueracracy and regulation to the Medical industry which will be borne by the privately insured. Conclusion Barrack Obama is going to embark on a New Deal II and create a Great Depression II by diverting trillions of investment dollars into areas which may or may not be benificial. By employing illegals and create third world job opportunities from 70 years ago.
lrm21 - - I agree fully. (And don't have to type the details, since youve covered it well.) - - - When I first heard these proposals I thought "You gotta be kidding." What is so revolutionary about these kinds of politically motivated make work programs ? These people are pulling out the play book from the 1930s. This isn't going to help make America more competitive in the 21st Century. Compare the private carriers to the U.S. Postal Service with their monopoly on some types of mail & ability to raise rates as they please. This model is going to produce a 'change' ? Yeah, right. - - - These people are trapped in the tunnel vision of their own backgrounds and philosophy. Lawyers(extortion/protection racket), community 'activists', and those who see business and capitalism as flawed or even suspect, won't have the capacity to think outside of that box, even if they thought it just might be in their best interests to do so. What's particularly disconcerting isnt that they may be nothing more than politician opportunists - - but that they actually believe all of that garbage. - - - (Guess I've become a political atheist - - - I don't believe any of them.)