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[bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

This is from the NYT, after  President-Elect BO's  radio address, today.  Not 
just big government -- 'enormous' government; and, this is only the 
beginning...............


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Obama Pledges Public Works on a Vast Scale 

 
By PETER BAKER and JOHN M. BRODER

Published: December 6, 2008 

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama committed Saturday to the largest 
public works construction program since the creation of the interstate 
highway system a half-century ago as he seeks to put together a plan to 
resuscitate the reeling economy.


With unemployment on the rise and no end to the recession in sight, Mr. Obama 
began highlighting elements of the economic recovery program he is trying to 
fashion with Congressional leaders in hopes of being able to enact it shortly 
after being sworn in on Jan. 20.

Mr. Obama’s remarks sought to expand the definition of traditional work 
programs for the middle class, like infrastructure projects to repair roads 
and bridges, while also pushing a federal effort to bring in new-era jobs in 
technology and so-called green jobs.

Although he put no price tag on it, he said he would invest record amounts of 
money in the vast infrastructure program, which also includes work on 
schools, sewer systems, mass transit, electric grids, dams and other public 
utilities. He vowed to upgrade computers in schools, expand broadband 
Internet access, make government buildings more energy efficient and improve 
information technology at hospitals and doctors’ offices.

“We need action — and action now,” Mr. Obama, said in an address taped for 
broadcast Saturday morning on radio and YouTube.

The address followed the latest grim economic report indicating that the 
country lost 533,000 jobs in November alone, bringing the total job loss over 
the past year to nearly 2 million. Although Mr. Obama remains weeks away from 
taking office, the report heightened pressure on him to assert leadership 
before his inauguration.

Mr. Obama and his team are working with Congressional leaders to devise a 
spending package that some lawmakers have suggested could total $400 billion 
to $700 billion. Some analysts forecast even higher costs.

A big part of that will be public works spending, particularly on projects 
aimed at conserving or expanding energy supplies and cleaning up the 
environment. “We will create millions of jobs by making the single largest 
new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the 
federal highway system in the 1950s,” Mr. Obama said. 

He did not estimate how much he would devote to that purpose, but when he met 
with the nation’s governors last week, they said the states had $136 billion 
worth of road, bridge and other projects approved ready to go as soon as 
money became available. They estimated that each billion dollars spent would 
create 40,000 jobs.

“He hasn’t given us any commitment, but we are fairly certain it’s going to 
be large,” Gov. Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania, a Democrat and chairman of 
the National Governors Association, said in an interview Saturday. “I think 
he understands if you’re trying to reverse the economy and turn it around, 
this is not the time to do it on the cheap. This is not the time to do it in 
small doses. It’s got to be big.”

President Bush and other Republicans have resisted such an approach in part 
out of concern for the already soaring federal budget deficit, which could 
easily hit $1 trillion this year. Borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars 
today to try to fix the economy, they argue, will leave a huge bill for the 
next generation.

Conservative economists have also long derided public works spending as a 
poor response to tough economic times, saying it has not been a reliable 
catalyst for short-term growth and instead is more about politicians gaining 
points with constituents.

Alan D. Viard, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, told 
Congress recently that public works spending should not be authorized out of 
“the illusory hope of job gains or economic stabilization.”

“If more money is spent on infrastructure, more workers will be employed in 
that sector,” Mr. Viard told the House Ways and Means Committee. “In the long 
run, however, an increase in infrastructure spending requires a reduction in 
public or private spending for other goods and services. As a result, fewer 
workers are employed in other sectors of the economy.”

Mr. Obama implicitly tried to counter such arguments by invoking the federal 
interstate highway program, widely seen as one of the most successful public 
works efforts in American history. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the 
Federal Aid Highway Act in 1956, ultimately resulting in the construction of 
42,795 miles of roads. In 1991, the government concluded that the total cost 
came to $128.9 billion, with the federal government paying $114.3 billion and 
the states picking up the rest.



Mr. Obama also responded to criticism of waste and inefficiency in such 
programs by promising new rules to govern spending, like a “use it or lose 
it” requirement that states act quickly to invest in roads and bridges or 
sacrifice federal money. 

“We won’t do it the old Washington way,” Mr. Obama said. “We won’t just throw 
money at the problem. We’ll measure progress by the reforms we make and the 
results we achieve — by the jobs we create, by the energy we save, by whether 
America is more competitive in the world.”

Mr. Rendell said such rules would help get people to work right away. In his 
state, he said, contractors generally have 120 days to turn in bids for 
projects, but he will cite these rules to cut it to 30 days. “If they 
complain and moan and whine,” he said, “I’m going to say, ‘use it or lose 
it.’ ” 

A substantial part of the proposed economic package will go toward creating 
so-called green jobs, those that benefit the environment or save energy. That 
part of the package could run as high as $100 billion over two years, 
according to an aide familiar with the discussions.

A blueprint for such spending can be found in a study financed by the 
Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts and 
the Center for American Progress, a Washington research organization founded 
by John D. Podesta, who is a co-chairman of Mr. Obama’s transition team.

The study, released in November after months of work, found that a $100 
billion investment in clean energy could create 2 million jobs over two 
years. 

Daniel J. Weiss, an environmental analyst at Mr. Podesta’s center, said the 
government should start by providing fresh money to the beleaguered 
automakers, preserving hundreds of thousands of jobs, on the condition that 
they commit to cleaner and more fuel-efficient cars, like plug-in hybrids.

Then, Mr. Weiss said, Washington should invest money in existing programs 
that create work while cutting energy use, like home weatherization programs 
that have been chronically underfinanced. Congress authorized $900 million 
for the federal weatherization assistance program this year but only a third 
of that has been spent.

Mr. Obama has also spoken of retrofitting schools, post offices and other 
public buildings with high-efficiency heating and cooling systems and 
cool-burning fluorescent lighting. Money could also go to mass transit and 
solar, wind and biofuels projects. 

A senior Obama adviser said the transition team was trying to translate his 
campaign promises into a legislative blueprint. “Part of what we’re doing is 
taking a look at that entire proposal and seeing what elements could be 
accelerated and what could be done as a down payment on the larger plan,” the 
adviser said. “We are also looking for things to the greatest degree possible 
that would spend out over two years and be a natural short-term investment.”

Several Congressional committees are planning hearings, including one next 
week by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Senator Jeff 
Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico and the panel chairman, said in an interview 
that he would focus on energy-saving projects that could be financed quickly 
and create jobs. 

Mr. Bingaman noted a huge backlog of maintenance projects at national parks 
and other federal lands. Such a program would be similar to Franklin D. 
Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, which built many of the original 
roads, bridges, trails and buildings on public lands in the 1930s.

“We have a queue of projects that are ready to go immediately if we can get 
the funding,” said Gov. James E. Doyle of Wisconsin, a Democrat. “These could 
produce large numbers of jobs here in Wisconsin, from Ph.D. researchers in 
our labs to people working in manufacturing, agriculture and forestry. We’re 
not trying to resurrect the past, but we’re looking to the kinds of jobs 
we’ll have in the future.”





http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/us/politics/07radio.html?hp