Some shovel-ready questions (Sept. 8)
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
President Obama has plans to spend $50 billion on transportation infrastructure, that good, old collective word which means roads, railways and runways. And on the surface, that doesn’t seem like a terrible idea. The nation’s roads, bridges and railways are in need of repair and expansion; a lot of airports need upgrading.
But I have a couple of questions.
First, what happened to the billions that were to be spent on “shovel-ready” projects last year and early this year? While some stimulus money did make it to the local level, a lot of it didn’t. Not that much of it created new jobs. In fact, a lot of it was spent preserving state government services. Therefore, the money wasn’t for stimulus so much as it was for preservation.
When a guy says “shovel-ready” projects, I assume he means projects that are ready to get under way, a project that will hire a guy or gal with a shovel, or even a backhoe. And there were a few such projects. But a lot of that initial stimulus money went elsewhere. I’d like some assurance that this particular $50 billion will actually be used for the purposes intended.
Second, at some point, we need to start figuring out how we’ll pay back all this money. As any school child knows, all these stimulus funds are borrowed, and lenders expect to be repaid with interest. Those loans for infrastructure become part of the National Debt, and right now the interest on that debt is third behind only defense and human services as part of the national budget. It is expected to become the largest single federal budget item by the end of next year. And to make matters worse, a lot of that debt is held by people who don’t particularly like us.
Has anybody thought about selling debt-reduction bonds to the American people, rather than just savings bonds? At least, then, we would be paying ourselves back, and then would be paid back in return.
I agree… OPEN GOV. I’d like to the the GOV. website show where every penny is going.. and too who the check was made out to.. after all it is the peoples money….