what???
Posted on 03/03/2009 8:14:11 PM PST by Lorianne
“History reminds us,” President Barack Obama told both houses of the US Congress on Tuesday night, “that at every moment of economic upheaval and transformation, this nation has responded with bold action and big ideas.” By “the nation”, Mr Obama means “the government”. We can tell by the episodes he uses to make his point: the establishment of universal public education, the GI Bill of Rights and – alluded to but not named – the Highway Act of 1956, at the time of its passage the largest public works project in US history.
Mr Obama’s praise for the Highway Act is disturbing. In arguments over his stimulus package and his preliminary budget released on Thursday, Republicans have made the lazy assumption that government intervention in the economy can never succeed. Mr Obama shows signs of the opposite error – believing it can never fail.
The Highway Act probably has more defenders than detractors. But Mr Obama should be among the latter. The act, which budgeted $25bn in federal money to build 41,000 miles of motorway, exacerbated the very problems Mr Obama has been most eager to solve – spoliation of the environment, dependence on foreign oil, overburdening of state and local budgets, abandonment of the inner-city poor and reckless speculation in real-estate development, to name a few.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
what???
Down with the freeways!!!
Let’s go back to chasing chickens along dirt roads!
Oh, Puh-leeze! Show me the empirical evidence of Keynesian economics working just once in the history of mankind. Just one shred of evidence. Welfare handouts and temporary jobs do not restore an economy. Reduced marginal rates, reduced size of the government, reduced regulations, anti-inflationary policy, fixing banking regulations such as mark-to-market, and ending the effort to make housing "affordable" to people who should not own a home would solve the problem. Not pissing away money today to buy future democrat votes.
“The road to hell is paved with “good” intentions.”
- Samuel Johnson
Don’t the chickens have to be registered now?
Robert “Follow the Yellow Brick Road” Reich will make sure that this will fail by hiring unqualifying people to rebuild the roads and bridges.
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