President Elect Barack Obama has pledged to create the largest public works program since the interstate highway half a century ago. Obama has put together a plan that ranges from traditional work programs for the middle class, like infrastructure projects to repair roads and bridges, to include new-era jobs in technology and so-called green jobs that reduce energy use and global warming emissions, in Obama's effort to offset the close to 2 million job loss in this country over the past year. The article states that :"Mr. Obama’s plan, if enacted, would be in part a government-directed industrial policy, with lawmakers and administration officials picking winners and losers among private projects and raining large amounts of taxpayer money on them." President Bush and many conservative economists have opposed such large-scale government intervention in the economy, because some of the firms that will be supported under this program can not survive the market economy. Paul Bledsoe, a former Clinton White House energy adviser said:"It’s now clear that Obama intends to stimulate the economy through large direct government spending on infrastructure projects as well as through business and individual tax cuts"
It seems like Obama is really ambitious and he might be shaking up the system a bit when he takes office. What he has proposed seems like a radical change from how the U.S free market been operating in the last 20-30 years. If his program is successful I think it can do alot of good for the U.S with newer infrastructures.
4 comments:
Where is the money going to come from? Probably taxpayers...sweet.
Sounds a lot like socialism to me.
Since the United States has been trying to become more and more unregulated and with that we are in a huge financial crisis, would it really be so bad to go back to some of the regulations we once had to help us out of the recession?
I agree that certain things need to be done to get us out of the recession. I just want to know where the money is coming from. People are already facing the crunch. To come in and ask for more money is not going to be popular.
I'd say money going into building infrastructures are wiser spent than say money going to the war. And building these infrastructure is more of a spark to ensure more efficient business etc... and to create greater revenue for all, like building the highway, some one had to sacrafice to get it done and now becuase of it we're all better off.
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