Not a Moment Too Soon: Rebuilding infrastructure and putting millions to work in the process

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Not a Moment Too Soon
By BOB HERBERT
Published: November 24, 2008

It looks as if the U.S. is about to have a president, at long last, who gets it when it comes to jobs.

There doesn’t appear to be anything faint-hearted about Barack Obama’s plans to stimulate the economy, which hasn’t come this close to flat-lining since the 1930s. The president-elect’s recovery plan emphasizes job creation, and the path to that end winds through the nation’s long-neglected infrastructure....

In a radio address on Saturday, Mr. Obama described his plan as follows:

“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. 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, fuel-efficient cars and the alternative energy technologies that can free us from our dependence on foreign oil and keep our economy competitive in the years ahead.”...

***

The smartest step when it comes to infrastructure would be for the new administration to follow through on the president-elect’s campaign promise to create a national infrastructure bank that would not just raise money and invest in the nation’s infrastructure, but would also bring a measure of coherence to the myriad projects that need to go forward.

One of the reasons the U.S. is in such deep trouble is that it has stopped being smart — turning its back on excellence, sophistication and long-term planning — in its public policies and corporate behavior. We’ve seen it in Iraq, in New Orleans, in the fiscal policies of the Bush administration, in the scandalous neglect of public education, in the financial sector meltdown, the auto industry and on and on. We’ve lionized dimwits. And now we’re paying the price.

If we’re going to rebuild the nation, with the hope of putting millions to work in the process, we should do it in the way that makes the most sense and brings the biggest bang for our megabucks.

Right now infrastructure projects go forward willy-nilly. They are often financed haphazardly and are subjected to the worst kinds of political influence.

Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut is sponsoring a bill that would create an infrastructure bank with a bipartisan board of directors and a chief executive to be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The board would streamline the process of reviewing and signing off on major infrastructure proposals. It would determine the value to the public of each project — and its environmental impact. It would provide federal investment capital for approved projects and use that money to leverage private investment....

The U.S. is moving from a period in which leaders spent money on wars and on lavish tax cuts for the rich, but not on investments in the nation’s future. That era of breathtaking irresponsibility must come to an end. Which means that now, with so much federal money soon to be available for infrastructure projects, it’s crucially important to spend the money as wisely as possible....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/25/opinion/25herbert.html?hp

[Fovea]

1. THis sort of clearing house keeps Keyensian stimulus

from being another pork barrel for corporatism.

[Booster]

2. But for to really work, they've got to figure out a way to make sure

the contractors don't hire illegals to do the work; they need to hire U.S. citizens and pay them a livable wage. And no one can tell me they can't check on these contractors, cause that's bullshit.

[izquierdista]

3. Forget leverage

That's another word for using public money to fill the private trough. Direct government funding and work on projects, without the layers of contractors, sub-contractors and contract workers will make sure the money doesn't get skimmed off through the corrupt practices of American private enterprise. I hope Obama does bring back the CCC in some fashion.

[many a good man]

4. Didn't Clinton also promise this in 1992?

I don't remember it ever going anywhere.