The Spending We Need

Soon to be President Obama plans to spend between 500 and 700 billion dollars on public works projects.

While this figure approaches all of the money spent on economic bailouts of financial institutions, I believe it is a debt we must incur.  If you take a look at many roads and bridges within America, particularly in areas that are not economically prosperous, things are bad.  Whether it is a pothole or a structurally unsound bridge, the public's safety is at risk.  

The last time we spent such a large amount of money on infrastructure was likely in the 50's when Ike created our Interstate System.  Since then, time has taken a toll on our roads.  We aren't building any new ones but desperately need to maintain those that we have.  It is inconceivable for a non-government entity to fix all these roads, unless we created a private toll road system that would rival any government bureaucracy.

The good news is that these are construction jobs that will not be outsourced and that the extra work may be able to help a good amount of the unemployed construction workers (who lost their jobs after the housing bust) get back to work.

This is a win-win for all.