Obama economic plan aims for 2.5M new jobs by 2011

Obama economic plan aims for 2.5M new jobs by 2011

By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer Will Lester, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama promoted an economic plan Saturday he said would create or save 2.5 million jobs by spending billions of dollars to rebuild roads and bridges and modernize schools while developing alternative energy sources and more efficient cars.

"These aren't just steps to pull ourselves out of this immediate crisis. These are the long-term investments in our economic future that have been ignored for far too long," Obama said in the weekly Democratic radio address.

The goal is to get the ambitious plan quickly through Congress, with help from both parties, after Obama takes office Jan. 20. The plan, which envisions those new jobs by January 2011, is "big enough to meet the challenges we face," he said. The president-elect said he has asked his economic advisers to flesh out the recovery plan — one "big enough to meet the challenges we face. ... We'll be working out the details in the weeks ahead, but it will be a two-year, nationwide effort to jump-start job creation in America and lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy."

The plan comes at a time that the economy is continuing a downward spiral after hundreds of billions have already been spent trying to stabilize markets and restore confidence — with little success so far.

...

The Labor Department reported that claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to the highest level since July 1992, providing fresh evidence of the weakening job market.

"We'll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children, and building wind farms and solar panels," Obama said. He also made a commitment to fuel-efficient cars and alternative energy technologies "that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead."

- rest at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081123/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_economy

 

I imagine that there have been enough studies done to know that if X amount of dollars are spent on infrastructure that it will result in X number of jobs.

 

1. There is no doubt that there is massive need for infrastructure spending, particularly to fix what is breaking down which will require little or no envirionmental studies since they already exist.

2. I am all for tax cuts for the middle and working classes in this nation - the folks who really need a tax cut. I am not for wasting tax cuts on big corporations and the well off who don't need them.

 

If GM and Ford are forced to liquidate I think we can kiss any great U.S. economic growth goodbye for years to come.

 

Why would shoring up/repairing/replacing an existing bridge require new environmental studies? Why would repairing roads/highways/interstates require new environmental studies?

 

That's rather naive thinking.

 

It is naive trickle down economic wrongheaded thinking such as that, plus the lack of regulation to control the excesses of capitalism, that have caused us to be in the economic crisis that we are in today.

 

No, it doesn't go that way.

 

All of the cars they produce. All of the products that their suppliers produce. Wake up, Tom. You're smarter than to make such a statement as that.

 

Repair work is new spending but it isn't a new project. You know that, Tom.