And it’s just as craptastic as the last one, if not more so. For the record, UCLA economists discovered not too long ago that FDR’s New Deal policies prolonged the Great Depression by 7 years. Which, you know, is why we must revive them to solve the current economic crisis.
Transcript courtesy of Hot Air:
President-elect Barack Obama added sweep and meat to his economic agenda on Saturday, pledging the largest new investment in roads and bridges since President Dwight D. Eisenhower built the Interstate system in the late 1950s, and tying his key initiatives – education, energy, health care –back to jobs in a package that has the makings of a smaller and modern version of FDR’s New Deal marriage of job creation with infrastructure upgrades.
The president-elect also said for the first time that he will “launch the most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen.”
“We will repair broken schools, make them energy-efficient, and put new computers in our classrooms,” he said in the address.
The president-elect is bringing new elements of his domestic agenda into his economic recovery plan, committing to a path toward giving every American access to an electronic medical record as part of an “economic recovery plan … that won’t just save jobs, it will save lives.”
And then we’re going to give everyone that pony they had asked for for Christmas years ago, and we’ll send them on a vacation to Hawaii….
Seriously, as Ed notes, Obama invokes both FDR and Eisenhower in his speech. Eisenhower had the Interstate system built not to create jobs but to ensure national security. The highways ensured that the military could move across the nation quickly should an attack occur. That happened when we could afford to build the system and when it was needed for our security. This new project we can’t afford — especially with the bailouts — and is only being planned to help Obama’s re-election chances.
You’ll have to read the rest of Ed’s analysis for the remainder of the WPA-like program. Worth a read.
6. December 2008 at 6:25 pm
Well, I guess next year I’ll be building bridges. I think I’ll like this. I don’t know anything about building bridges but I’ll do it anyway. It is probably a good paying job and because I’m 65 and losing my plastic injection molding company this is what I’ll need,a high paid government job. Maybe you might not want to go over the bridges I’ll build but then again might be just as good as some.
Jim