Obama's $300B infrastructure plan

President Obama will announce his plan to spend more than $300 billion over the next four years to fix the nation’s crumbling roads and bridges during a trip to Minnesota on Wednesday.

Were getting roads ! ! ! !

Woohoo!

Obama's going to blow more money, and just after giving government contractors raises. Only to kill their jobs, and guts defense ! ! ! !

Fresh from Republicans giving Obama a blank check.

Were gonna gets 'new' roads!

Wooo hooo I'm excited !!!!!!!!

Don't you just love the progressive agenda at work ?

I know I am. Just think my tax dollars are going to be taken from me, and given to other people, and I will never use them roads, or bridges!

Oh and them construction UNIONS are going to be making BANK.

Of course them 'new' roads, and bridges will take YEARS to be 'rebuilt' at a cost of BILLIONS more when adjusted for overurns, and inflation.


AWESOME

I just love the great 'savior' of the REPUBLIC at work!

reply to post by neo96


What happened to the near 900 billion for "shovel ready" work in 2009? Kinda...pot holed, didn't it? I saw some work done, but nothing remotely like almost 1 trillion dollars worth of work. We ought to be driving gold lined streets in cities lit by our own brilliance after that orgy of spending ..yet..how much was actually done?

Sorry... I don't trust these people with another 3rd of a trillion. How about we try LOWERING spending?! Even the ugly cuts they are going after at the Pentagon come with the caveat for media that Defense spending will still be slightly higher overall, regardless. Say..huh!?

Now another Porkulus? Will we ever stop believing the nonsense or are we doomed to repeat the rip off like an evil Groundhog Day?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000

What happened to the near 900 billion for "shovel ready" work in 2009?

Indeed what happened to it ?

It was blown with nothing to show for it, and that wasn't enough so they added $300 more billion to that BS.

Which makes it over $1 trillion dollars Obama has single handedly BLOWN.

Hey it's 'free' money.

No skin off his back.

Porkulous ?

Like that trillion dollar farm bill that Obama just signed ?

There are Two things, I do not care how they do it, raise taxes etc.

That I never complain about when they try to spend money on, in general principal, though in execution I might, are the following.

1. Education, as it is abysmal and it has a net Benefit to us all.

2. Infrastructure, again much the same reasons as above.

Infrastructure like education also has the added net benefit of job creation, The problems arise when WHATS being built, and Built by WHO, Come into play.

Many people don't understand that the Current roads and networks for utility we relay on are perilously close to failure, and have been in use well past their engineered point of function.

We have patched it, and band aided it, and have seen the results with many high profile bridge failures over the past 20 years, many of which where built after the depression as a means to create jobs.

Many built with a life span we have exceeded.

THIS is one matter, I don't care who does it, It just needs to get done.


ETA:

I find it funny we live in a nation where Defense is more important than the People being defended. To know whats wrong with this nation we only have to look at who gets the money.

3x that of entitlement spending, I can't even guess how much more it is than infrastructure...

We spend more on the act of "defense" than in actually taking care of our citizens, its shameful.

reply to post by neo96


The bridge to serfdom.

Last time......

Obama: Shovel Ready jobs not shovel ready


...... And won't be this time either !!

Just another "shovel ready" campaign slogan with no results.

reply to post by benrl

Infrastructure like education also has the added net benefit of job creation, The problems arise when WHATS being built, and Built by WHO, Come into play.

Indeed it is all about the who, and what. Which is why 'infrastructure' are local, and state issues.

Not to push federal agendas.

Many people don't understand that the Current roads and networks for utility we relay on are perilously close to failure, and have been in use well past their engineered point of function.

In my humble. What people don't understand is with the increase of social engineering programs that has taken money from 'infrastructure' spending.

The more money spent on those programs there has been a corresponding decline in infrastructure.

People can't have everything they want. There ain't enough money to go around.

The proof is in the pudding.

Something had to give, and infrastructure lost out to the nanny state.

A problem the Obamas created, to offer their 'solution'.

Rinse, and repeat asinine ideology.

Wrabbit2000
reply to post by neo96

 

What happened to the near 900 billion for "shovel ready" work in 2009? Kinda...pot holed, didn't it? I saw some work done, but nothing remotely like almost 1 trillion dollars worth of work. We ought to be driving gold lined streets in cities lit by our own brilliance after that orgy of spending ..yet..how much was actually done?

Sorry... I don't trust these people with another 3rd of a trillion. How about we try LOWERING spending?! Even the ugly cuts they are going after at the Pentagon come with the caveat for media that Defense spending will still be slightly higher overall, regardless. Say..huh!?

Now another Porkulus? Will we ever stop believing the nonsense or are we doomed to repeat the rip off like an evil Groundhog Day?

well here's the breakdown of where that money went in simple graph terms....seems like everyone got a piece of that pie.
www.washingtonpost.com...

reply to post by benrl

We spend more on the act of "defense" than in actually taking care of our citizens, its shameful.

Tell me another story.

Because that is not even close to being truthful.

In 2010 alone, government at all levels oversaw a transfer of over $2.2 trillion in money, goods and services. The burden of these entitlements came to slightly more than $7,200 for every person in America. Scaled against a notional family of four, the average entitlements burden for that year alone approached $29,000

online.wsj.com...

www.usdebtclock.org...

Over $128 trillion in 'unfunded liabilities. The promises made that are 'taking care' of American citizens.

Promises that can never be paid for.

reply to post by neo96


And yet know one wants to touch the elephant in the Room, Defense.

We build planes just to scrap them, Tanks that no one wants, etc.

TO KEEP JOBS, its hilarious, because the same could be accomplished with Infrastructure spending, yet its not.

I guess the Road networks don't have a Lobby like Tyco and Boeing.

It doesn't matter whose in office if we don't address the core Issue, and thats Lobbying, it allows our representation to be bought, Dem, or Rep, its the corporations that win.

Not us.

reply to post by jimmyx


Yup.. It sure seems that way. Kinda like everyone winning the Powerball in the movie Bruce Almighty. A lump some that would change lives within one context, became less than it took to buy a candy bar because 'everyone got some'. Much like happened here.... Every political cause and cup got some dropped into it, while we still have a water distribution system falling apart. We have thousands out of 84,000 dams across this nation in deficient and high risk status while we watch our Bridge and Road inventory reports continue to drop and become the punch line to a joke.

So....Why should we trust this time will really really be different ...when that is precisely what was promised the last time and the time before that, to be quite blunt about this. It's not even the second bite at this apple ..and the free for all spending orgy to cronies and party hacks is obscene to watch. Not again, is all I say. Our nation is broke and our economy is busted. Lets not commit self-destruction in totality....despite what some seem to really want to see happen in the decisions they are making right now.

reply to post by benrl

And yet know one wants to touch the elephant in the Room, Defense.

Defense is NOT the elephant in the room.

Social Engineering programs are.

TO KEEP JOBS, its hilarious, because the same could be accomplished with Infrastructure spending, yet its not.

You mean those blue collar jobs that pay well,and those people pay income tax that introduces new wealth to pay for those social programs.

Talking about those jobs ?

reply to post by neo96


Sorry Neo, those are the Total net entitlements weighted as a whole.


Go year to year, Thats the problem with the defense Budget, we aren't talking about a known like entitlements.

We can put a tag on entitlements and say ITS THIS MUCH PER PERSON, based on obligation and future obligations we have to meet.


So we take that and you can get a number, and than spread that out to a yearly number.

WHEN you do that, you can than compare it to defense, which is not a future known.

IT grows every year, and you would than have to extrapolate that as a guess for each future year vs the entitlement burden for future generation.

Which is impossible, because we can't know what the defense budget will be for the year little Timmy reaches retirement age at 65.

Numbers can be made to say anything, Common sense says we shouldn't be building planes we don't need just for the sake of job creation and to line Boeings pockets.

IF we are to flush money away, it should be to the benefit of this nation and its people not corporations.

Period.

reply to post by benrl


Sorry ?





The reason SS,Medicare,Medicaid are called 'entitlements' is because none of those programs pay for themselves.

Lots of other people are.

So by all rights they are called 'entitlement' spending.

Because for some odd reason the people think they are owed 100% of the benefits received only paying 6% in.

Once again social engineering is the elephant in the room since it is the largest creator of debt we have.

Here's one of those original articles from 2009 on the US infrastructure: www.cnn.com...:US

Here's the page for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: www.gsa.gov...

And the page that is specifically for road and bridge work: www.dot.gov...

And a map where obligated funds are going: www.dot.gov...

The map is kind of interesting. California is the big winner as far as most funds go at $7.1b. NY is second with just under half that and Illinois is 3rd.

Page 16 on the following document is an interesting read. Apparently, three states had construction bids come in too low for maintenance of effort (MOE) compliance. Cough, cough, cough.
www.dot.gov...

Page 17 is helpful as well.

If you remember, the controversy about the infrastructure was due to a bridge collapse that killed about a dozen people in Minneapolis back in 2007. That's when the bombing grades started getting hammered out. Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, at the time, seemed like a spin off from Roosevelt's New Deal. Considering that one of the largest areas of unemployment was in construction due to a housing glut post-financial crisis, it really wasn't a bad idea at all. As long as it's done well though, right?

Enjoy the links.

reply to post by neo96


So what is wrong with building roads? Do you not drive on interstates or something?

neo96
reply to post by benrl

 

Defense is NOT the elephant in the room.

Social Engineering programs are.

You mean those blue collar jobs that pay well,and those people pay income tax that introduces new wealth to pay for those social programs.

Talking about those jobs ?

Both sound like welfare to me,

One is simply corporate.

Companies in defense, CONSTANTLY, use the job creation line while outsourcing and laying off workers despite record profits.

As with anything we do things now the most corrupt way possible, YES it creates jobs, by relying on a corrupt war economy and reaping massive benefits slanted against the workers.

Infrastructure spending has always been the fastest way to get "jobs" to the people, it is a direct pipe to work, with a fair smaller tolerance for the type shenanigans that end with unused production.

So yeah, we have relied upon a wasteful horrific means of job creation, which we could easily turn inwards to infrastructure to recoup those jobs.

We won't, but we could.

reply to post by neo96



Didnt we just spend upward of $700,000,000,000 on "shovel ready" infrastructure projects like 3 or 4 years ago?

I guess the money that was going to be used for infrastructure got suck up in the green energy money pit.

I agree with your sentiments, HIP HIP HOORAY!!!!!

Thank goodness the budget hawk republicans in office voted to fire 100,000+ military, cut retired military benefits, and then after all that, just too prove money doesnt matter, they cut all that for no real reason, they write a blank check to the guy that has spent more money in his first couple years in office than all other presidents combined, minus Bush2 Clinton and Bush1.

These guys are the brains of this operation? God in heaven, where is the nearest exit?

Krazysh0t
reply to post by neo96

 

So what is wrong with building roads? Do you not drive on interstates or something?

Gee I don't know what is wrong with building roads ?

Other than emulating China, with their trillions spent on ghost cities, and roads to nowhere.

reply to post by benrl

Both sound like welfare to me,

Right about that social programs are corporate welfare.

Rob from the rich, give to the so called need so they can go out,and buy more corporate products.

Ones good.

Ones 'bad'.