Matt Bai has a piece in theNew York Times today (9/9/10) explaining how Barack Obama squandered an opportunity to make fundamental changes to the American economy. One claim in the piece jumps out; after explaining that large infrastructure projects–rail lines, broadband, etc.– are “things that only an active government could realistically do,” Bai claims:
Getting such projects done justified some tolerable level of public debt, proponents argued, just as a family might consider a steep mortgage on a home in a high-quality school district to be an investment in the children’s success.
And yet, little was achieved by way of investing in 21st-century infrastructure, largely because the public never seemed open to the idea of huge new spending.
The public doesn’t like the idea of spending more on infrastructure? Really? Bloomberg (12/10/09) had a poll on this last year, and its write-up led with this finding:
Americans want their government to create jobs through spending on public works, investments in alternative energy or skills training for the jobless.
And later:
Two-thirds of Americans back boosting spending on infrastructure. Six of 10 also support more spending on alternative energy to stimulate job growth, another measure Obama announced.
“The best thing we could do is take some public money to rebuild our infrastructure and improve it,” says poll respondent Richard Kellaway, 75, a Unitarian Universalist minister who lives in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Unemployed people “could be put to work in a matter of days.”
But maybe Bai knows about a national referendum that was conducted that we somehow didn’t hear about.
I live in a state that must maintain the 7th most miles of roads in the United States. However it has the 45th least revenue to do that huge job. In 2002, a Republican Senator, wanting to leave a legacy behind before he left the Missouri Senate, authored a bill that was supported by all the Democrats in the state Senate and all but five Republican Senators; however, the small tax increases that would have financed those improvements had to go before Missouri voters for approval. In Missouri, we had a constitutional amendment that passed in 1976 that has hampered government’s ability to raise the revenues it needs for everything in the state and in localities. The highway funding bill that would have increased the fuel tax by a mere 4 cents per gallon and a small sales tax, a fraction of a penny, was overwhelmingly defeated at the polls. Missouri voters voted “No” by over 70%. The rural areas of the state do not have to pay for maintenance of double letter county roads; Missouri took responsibility for them in the 1950s to provide safe roads for school busses and for farm to market transportation. That area of the state voted most heavily against the small tax increases. In 2011, the department of transportation will have to cut back on the work it does on its roads and will have to choose which roads to maintain. Rural roads will suffer from the lack of funding, and they should. Urban areas where the traffic is the heaviest will get the attention of MODOT because the main highways are more critical to this state. I would say that the writer is correct that people do not get excited about roads and bridges until lack of maintenance impacts them.
It was under the New Deal, that FDR got our economy rolling again. He helped build the highways and bridges but that was so long ago and too many of the bridges are in very poor shape. Mr. Obama is planning a similiar plan. He wants people to get back to work. Working on these projects that improve the safety of all, while giving our people jobs, is not a bad idea. Our network of roads needs updating. We should, as a country, think about the rail as an alternate to everyone driving individual cars. It works so well in Europe, it is a pleasure to get from city to city, country to country without a hitch.
Yes, we need a government program. But we need to work on using fewer cars and having more efficient public transportation. The emphasis should be more on energy efficiency. // Jean Clelland-Morin
Matt Bai should be moved to the editorial page. His work rarely stands up to fact checking. More accurately his work rarely contains facts. But his editor seems to like him. I avoid his byline. Bai’s constant refrain is the republicans will prevail in the up coming elections over & over. He has been calling the election for most of the last year.
One can only hope that the Times will make an about face & start printing fact based informational reporting that accurately reflects our political landscape. As opposed to the horse race, food fight garbage Bai & so much of the Times political anti reporting crew pumps out. Read todays absolutely bottom of the barrel article on the tan man from Ohio. Not one mention of the must be hundreds of misrepresentations (Lies) & mischaracterizations that are his characteristic fare for the constant sound bites we are subjected to. But the piece did mention hi tan as usual.
The Times continues to think that the crappier they are the better chance they have of reversing their circulation numbers that still are going down. One has to wonder who is it at the Times that thinks out Ruperting Rupert is the road to success. Along with the majority of the US the Times is in a race to the bottom. Check out Mcclatchy RSS feed, The Christian Science Monitor, & I really like The Bay Citizen for SF Bay Area news. You can link to it via the Times national section. I read the Times & keep hoping that it will become the paper it could & should be. If they want to be percieved as the paper of record their editors will have to be much more strenuous. Gretchen Morganson, & Adam Liptec (did I spell that correctly?) are excellent, & should be a template for other reporters.
Regina … Sorry but the new deal extended the depression . Cartoons at the time showed one man digging a hole, and the next man filling it in. Perfect illustration.It was a nightmare our economy did not recover from until a generation down the line.And rails for many reason just wont work as well here as in Europe.It is not the wave of the future here.
Infra structure programs make for good press but usually succeed far less than the grand hopes one has going in.Of course it helps cement union support(not as if that occured to BAM)t.It does Promise to create jobs in the only way this president can think of.Having the government hire them.The Government doll.He is such a one trick pony.Bottom line is we have to remove ideas like “this is worth going in dept for”.Not because it is- or it isnt.But because our dept is now to the point that we can not spend anything on anything.I would not take an I.O.U from this government for a bag a apples.They don’t have the cash.Or better put WE don’t have the cash.The government /our government spent it all many times over.When Obama says tighten your belts he isn’t kidding.Well maybe he is…As he takes vacation after gold plated vacation, and his wife fly’s 60 friends to far off exclusive resorts….maybe to him it is one big hoot.But believe me,we back here on planet earth are BROKE!
You’re right of course, Regina, but thirty or more years of the rentier class and their servants (in the media and elsewhere) constantly sending out the message that the New Deal sucked, and that Roosevelt was a crazy liberal who hated America, has been somewhat effective. Characterizing all progress as bad, over and over, does finally sink in amongst the very people who stand to benefit the most from liberal-minded and forward thinking government action. If you want a nice primer that details what the Corporate State has in store for us, try Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine. If you want a glimpse of what happens when silly, ignorant fools who learned nothing in school convince themselves that they’re a genius precisely because of their over-arching ignorance, check out the poster above me, but remember this: Never respond to these resentful clowns.
just trivia, but michelle obama did not “fly’s 60 friends to far off exclusive resortsâ┚¬Ã‚¦”
The first lady met a few friends in Spain, who got to the country on their own, not flying on government aircraft. Mrs. Obama and her friends paid for their own meals and hotel rooms. Her entourage, including the secret service protection provided to the first lady, did book 60 rooms at one posh hotel.
ps: here on the part of planet earth i live in, neither the people i know, myself or my nearby local governments are broke. they’re making cuts, but that’s because tax revenues went down after buchco failed…
@ timn: if you want to see the future, take a look at colorado springs…they were paying city workers to disable street lights because they can’t raise tax rates
W and B………Good God man WHY DO YOU BELIEVE THE ONLY WAY TO RAISE REVENUE IS THROUGH TAXATION?????And Dont…don’t try to paint the endless vacations as anything but what they are. Excessive at a time of financial collapse.!Yes I said it …financial collapse.Look around you man.OUr debt is exploding as you and i speak.Jobs are still flying out the window.And the only horizon we see is more spending at light speed on every lib wet dream idea that has lived in their hearts for so many years.Numbers are coming in every day in every way,and it is an unmitigated disaster.Our economy is in hock up to Obamas very large ears.So really dont dude…Dont!And the sight of this president who has family living in squaller,who has never given shit to charity yet takes opulance to new levals at a time of deep distress is revolting.The accounting of what these vacations cost us….. and them ,is truly astounding.Look it up.THis is not a penny pincher. And Has he or the first family even been to camp David yet????Honestly if he has I have not heard about it.Tighten up your belts?Is that what I heard that rube say?I want to hear him say that a thousand times to America.Until we get it.Get the hypocrisy.The gall.How bout he stop playing Golf at 300 thou dollar golf clubs and come down to earth.I want to see more belt tightening from our leaders than what I am seeing now.Jackie O …Mrs Regan spent like demons. But we could afford a bit of largess in those heady times.At this point state dinners should be catered by Burger king.With explanations given to our guests by the president for the change in cuisine.10 words .Ten humbling words.WE ARE BROKE,WE ARE DOING THE BEST WE CAN.America may respect that.And feel kinship to their own situations.
Thanks for the info Jim