Fix the Roads to Fix the Economy

There is work to do in America, and Americans who need work.

President-elect Barack Obama wants to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild this country's neglected infrastructure. He's right. It's really a no-brainer.

We bailed out the banks. We can certainly repave Main Street -- and help out the working families who live there.

I travel around this country a lot. Everywhere I go, I see streets and highways that need resurfacing, bridges about to fall down and airports in dire need of new runways. Amtrak urgently needs repair, and transit systems can't handle record numbers of riders.

Spending on these projects will create jobs directly. It will put many of the 800,000 unemployed construction workers in the U.S. back to work. It will create jobs for truck drivers, painters, waste haulers, engineers and more.

Unlike financial services jobs, these jobs can't move to Bangalore. They stay here. They support families here. They keep working families in their homes.

Working families spend money in local grocery stores, local clothing shops and local restaurants. Their spending keeps those businesses afloat and their workers employed.

A construction worker or truck driver with a job will pay far more in local taxes than a construction worker or truck driver without a job. Those taxes will pay for teachers, police officers, sanitation workers and city clerks. Those teachers will also pay taxes -- and shop in local grocery stores, local clothing shops and local restaurants, and educate our children.

Infrastructure investments will do more for Americans than the bank bailout. All American taxpayers got from the bank bailout was an equity stake in troubled financial institutions. And, with the lack of oversight of the bailout, even that is questionable.

Infrastructure investments give you roads, bridges, transit systems, railroads and airports. They reduce travel time, increase productivity and improve our competitiveness in the global marketplace. They put money in the pockets of working families and in the treasuries of state and local governments.

Most important, investing in infrastructure will reverse the downward spiral that our economy has been in for more than a year. I hope Congress will have the good sense to pass a stimulus bill that will be ready for President Obama's signature on Jan. 20. It won't be a moment too soon.

Comments

[Pdubya]

I applaud an investment on infrastructe to "stimulate" the economy. but the formula is two-sided. our deficit is so large that printing or borrowing money to get this done will only add to the debasement of our currency UNLESS it is coupled with deep cuts in federal spending elsewhere that outweighs the infusement of federal reserve notes for the investment. we can not grow our way out of this one this time....our debt is too large.

if we do not do it this way, we will toil endlessly at our government jobs or government contracts as we witness our income trying to combat hyperinflation. o.k., so we'll be working; but our paycheck won't buy shoes.

the issue is currency and monetary policy. until we address the authority of the federal reserve and returning to sound money we will be delivered the false-paradigm over and over.

folks - these bailouts won't rescue us, whether they go to white or blue collar workers. credit comes from savings, production, and exports, not more credit (printing and borrowing in our case). we must address the currency!

"Allow me to issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes its laws!" Amschell Rothschild

[research]

Wrong, Your "secret" information is irrelevant.

Spending IS the only way out of depression.

Public works or War.

Meantime we must invalidate all CDS CDO the whole off market betting parlor now,

and revert all contracts to direct asset ownership.

It GOP Robber Baron Bankers

versus

FDR Save the country and the people public works for the GENERAL welfare,

Things that help society: Infrastructure green energy, health care, schools...

People stuff.

Study the Depression Timeline.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/users/profile/research

[Pdubya]

I'm not arguing over whether or not those things help society. I'm stating in pure economic givens that what you pay for must be paid for.....

Its about the currency and how it is issued and who has the authority to issue it....not what it is spent upon.

You couldn't be more wrong on your assessment of Depression History.

I challenge you to read The Creature from Jekyll Island and get back to me with the same opine.

[research]

We the GOP BANKERS SAY NO!

We have all the trillions.

All of them.

Want public works?

Beg.

FDR took control of the Banks.

[glockman]

uh, uh, wait, there it is, I can almost feel it...oohhhh, yes...FDR is still alive....

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go wipe myself off...

Sheesh....

[Pdubya]

hoover helped set up the federal reserve secretely. fdr used it and helped create the great depression and the onset of bubbles and bursts we see today. see my post above.

[karinova]

There's this part of me that can't even think straight on the issue of public works until Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi are properly rebuilt. It's a huge project that's staring us in the face.

------
I know, I know-- I'm sure that work has long since been awarded to huge contractors who are hoarding the work, providing shoddy services, inflating their rates and shafting their employees.

[JimboSlice]

For the $1T that we spent in Iraq we could have:

Built 20,000,000 PHEV at $50K a pop
Built 100 Fischer-Tropsh plants utilizing CCS and now we would be producing 10,000,000 bbl/day of oil equilivalents
Built 100,000 miles of high speed rail
Built 100,000 new schools
Educated 10,000,000 new doctors and nurses

Instead all we got was a bunch of dead soldiers and amputees.

[papapj]

..Not to mention an economy that's in tatters and an overseas reputation that isn't worth snot.....

[Georgia1992]

Very well said JimboSlice. Our priorities are f - - - ed up. We have a president who is stubborn, won't accept any new ideas, suggestions, etc. It's his way (war). The USA could have used that money to build, rebuild, and educate our people. I live in the Atlanta, GA metro area and we could used the high speed rail, or expand our MARTA train and buses into areas that are growing and spilling over into other areas. NO, the people of the metro area continue to scream that they don't want the train coming in their neighborhood. They have this fear that criminals and the undesirables are going to come to their house and steal everything they have. Now we're stuck with being in bumper to bumper traffic, gas and exhaust fumes blowing in our faces, anger, frustration, etc. Our local government is also a hater of improving our transportation.

[camper65]

You're absolutely right. Just look how successful the WPA was!

[commonsense2]

I hope that these jobs will actually be given to AMERICANS or immigrants who are here legally.

I am just afraid that like everything else, it will become a quagmire and the work will go to illegal immigrants when Americans desperately need work and money.

[firstcrasscitizen]

You watch to much Lou Dobbs.

[papapj]

..Even so-called "illegals" generate taxes, and contribute hundreds of Billions to the US economy.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/04/15/immigrant.taxes.ap/index.html

As is always the case, though in swell times nobody cares who is picking their oranges for them, or manning the abattoirs, cleaning office suites, or wiping their kids a**es ....

[JimboSlice]

Sure they generate taxes, they just don't pay them.

BTW, we had swell times in 2006 and I cared enough to report my neighbor to ICE... thankfully he paid a hefty fine for employing illegals.

[firstcrasscitizen]

Can anyone tell me what motivated President Eisenhower to build the U.S. interstate system? was it an economic crisis?

[NordicSci]

Strategic defense in the Cold War era -- hence the name "National System of Interstate and Defense Highways"

[firstcrasscitizen]

Thank you:)

[pencilpusher]

Evacuation routes for major cities in case of a nuclear attack from the Soviet Union.

[firstcrasscitizen]

Thank you:)

[Elitnaurista]

As supreme allied commander he saw first hand how the Germans used their autobahn to speed troop movements during the war. He was so impressed he thought our national security would be enhanced with a similar system.

Jim Vait
Bethel, Alaska

[firstcrasscitizen]

Why do we need an economic crises to fix our infrastructure?

[UncommonSenz]

Because it takes an economic crisis the size of this one before they can overcome the "any government spending is a total waste" drumbeat of the right.

[firstcrasscitizen]

Thank you:)

[HUFFNAME]

Right on.

And every road project, large or small, urban or rural, should include the extension of fiber-optic infrastructure anywhere it doesn't already exist. The marginal costs could be relatively low. It would bring another huge slice of political will behind the project. It would empower millions left behind in the evolution of the information economy while opening up markets. It would bring opportunities for tele-employment to many in hard-hit, poorly served areas.

[Overd0g]

Yeah, spreads it around to the building contractors. I guess it just gives you someone else to be envious of.

[firstcrasscitizen]

Do you ride a horse?

[HUFFNAME]

Thousands of (solvent, well managed) building contractors in all 50 states

vs.

A dozen (proven to be monumentally incompetent) financial firms all practically located on one street.

And you can't grasp the mathematical subtlety which reveals how this constitutes spreading it around more effectively and equitably?

One more reason that AIG analysts should not be spending their working hours posting to Huff.

[ssb752]

Infrastructure spreads money around. That is why it is a low priority for Bush and the Republicans. Can not concentrate the Treaury's largess to a select few, like our war contractors. Very Very Simple. The war has always been simply about the Bengamins and creating generational wealth for that upper 5%.

[Overd0g]

Yeah, spread it to the building contractors instead. Nice logic.

[UncommonSenz]

Yes, because we all know that everybody on a construction contract doesn't have to pay their workers.

Do you think, at all, before you type?

[ssb752]

The key here is the use of the plural of contractor. That would be many many of them who must have many many more employees. Not to mention the many many suppliers of materials such as concrete, steel, signs, asphalt, crushed rock, heavy equipment. And yes, it is the New Deal all over again. And no, I didn't say that like it was a bad thing. It worked then and it will work now. Trickle up, not trickle down.

[BassMonk]

Instead of what?

[threadbane]

How about fixing the railroads first? Take a bunch of the those trucks off the highway and they wouldn't need repairs anywhere near as often, not to mention the lower demand for imported oil that would result.

[Mabo]

Translation: Throw more money at the unions and it will fix the economy...lol. What a joke!

[firstcrasscitizen]

Its better than throwing it at a few scandalous Wall street PIGS..........no lol. here

[Mabo]

The unions are as power hungry and abusive as Wall St...no lol there either.