On Monday we celebrated a holiday created by Unions during a time in America where the job market is only made up with 7% union jobs. So it came to a surprise when Obama decided to announce something huge. I mean, really huge..
WASHINGTON, Sept 6 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will announce on Monday a six-year plan to revamp the United States' road, railways and runways with a $50 billion up-front investment to jump-start job creation, the White House said.
The plan is one of several several economic initiatives that Obama is due to unveil this week aimed at generating some desperately needed U.S. job growth and limiting predicted Democratic losses in Nov. 2 congressional elections.
Struggling to persuade Americans that his economic policies are working, Obama will use appearances in Milwaukee and Cleveland this week to set the tone for the fall campaign.
The argument he will make on the trips and a rare White House news conference is this: Democratic policies have stopped the bleeding and produced some economic growth. Yes, more needs to be done, but Republicans would bring back ideas, he will argue, that propelled the country into the deepest recession in 70 years.
Obama is to make his case with a speech in Milwaukee to a labor rally on Monday, the Labor Day holiday that marks the informal start of the election campaign season.
The White House did not say how it proposed to pay for the infrastructure plan, but an official said one option under consideration was to close tax breaks for oil and gas companies.
The official said Obama was committed to working with Congress to fully pay for the plan.
Under the six-year plan, Obama is proposing to: - Rebuild 150,000 miles (240,00 km) of roads; - Construct and maintain 4,000 miles (6,400 km) of rail; - Rehabilitate or reconstruct 150 miles (240 km) of runway and modernize the air traffic control system and; - Set up an infrastructure bank to leverage private, state and local capital to invest in projects.
The White House said the bank would end the existing system of spending on infrastructure projects that was based more on "geography and politics than demonstrated value."
But when it came to this announcement I... I was very confused. I really didn't know how to react emotionally to a good thing. It has been as if I was an abused housewife for so long that the gut reaction to lift my arm up to block the hit wasn't even needed. I mean, I know the chances of this being executed in anything remotely sane is a pipe dream, but god bless him for even putting it down on paper. It's more than I was ever hoping for.
In saying all that, I have to ask - Isn't $50 billion a laughable trivial amount of money? Yeah, it's 50 billion more than anyone ever expected us to invest in our infrastructure, but $50 billion is the amount that we blew for "emergency" spending on the Afghan War a few months back, like a week before a similarly-priced bill for unemployment benefits was slashed.
Just a friendly reminder that the Defense budget is still 15 times the size of this proposed idea. This bill would also need to be 10x's this amount to have any meaningful impact on the economy. Even then it's probably way too small.. just saying.
It's a good gesture but I guess the next question to come to mind is why are construction jobs, or jobs peripherally related to construction, the only thing getting attention? I guess they're the focus because they have the added benefit of maintaining and producing badly needed infrastructure in this country. It may not be a specialized skill, but anyone can learn how to pour concrete.
Construction jobs tend to be heavily hit in recessions and because infrastructure is one of the better ways to implement a stimulus package since you're actually getting something out at the end rather than just moving money around to move more money around.
But while I understand the value of infrastructure, I feel like it should attempt to be more comprehensive. But then again, what am I talking about? We'd be lucky if this shit goes anywhere at all.
I do have to say that it's like the coolest possible Alpha Centauri faction logo going on there. Which it better be, because they probably spent a ton of taxpayer money for somebody to design that logo that most people will never see.
It really is lucky that Obama's name starts with an O, he really does incorporate it in a lot of things. Maybe he should start incorporating overt fascist communist and Islamic symbols in his propaganda because he's only a few steps shy of actually doing so. Just imagine W in place as the symbol of programs the government runs, that'll be criticized a lot more than we seem to do for Obama's O's.
I'm wondering how badly the rights going to spin this to make the people it's directly aiding think it's going to kill America with Obama's socialist views.
So it's not tough to see how they'll spin this one as a bad thing. The classic "We can't afford to spend money when we could be giving tax breaks to businesses." route is a default. Republicans always do that. "50 billion dollars on infrastructure?! Wasteful spending. Now, onto the multi-billion dollar bill for the investigation as to whether or not Obamape was born in Kenya."
Don't you see what he's doing? Obama is trying to take your potholes away. Doesn't this remind you of anything?! Like maybe something that happened in GERMAN 1933?!?!?! WAKE UP BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE, AMERICA!
The real question is, what do you do when you're facing financial hardship? When you've got debt piled up and you sit at the dinner table and discuss finances. Do you decide to go spend lots more money that you don't have and dig yourself into bigger debt? Nope. You stop spending money, fix your debt, and then tighten up your belt. The American people get this, they have to do this, why doesn't the Government get it also?
Though I would be all up for expanding our ailing electrical grid and improving network infrastructures so I could game faster with no worries of rolling black outs. I do love that the consideration for where the money will come from is to close tax breaks for oil and gas companies. See, that glimmer of hope in my eye again? Yes, that's an awesome idea and reminds me why I voted for him.
Even if the process of making and setting of concrete is the worst greenhouse gas polluter. Not to mention that all this infrastructure improvement is going toward enabling more motor-vehicle traffic, directly or indirectly. So hey, we're creating more waste but at least we're improving our roads, creating jobs that are better and more useful than census workers and probably will be longer in time span than those as well. So hey, Obama did a thing, a thing that will better tomorrow... either that or just bankrupt us more into China's pocket.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment