We did spend that money - we spent it on Second homes in the Hamptons, Ivy league tuition, yachts, etc. It did not result in more job creation - in fact, the economy cratered.
May I point out that homes and yachts are built by people who have jobs?
Fuck the economic Ayn Randists and their fixation with shaving off every cent from every thing and keeping it for themselves.
LET'S JUST DO THIS: IT'S ALREADY PAST TIME!
That would be lovely except that every time the fed spends a dollar, that's a huge amount of money that the private sector can't spend. The Fed has a horrible record of picking the right projects to back and is hugely inefficient at doing projects.
Consider convincing a more local government to back for infrastructure projects. Local governments are much much better at making good use of taxpayer money. This is self evident for many reasons. Get the Fed off our back so our states and counties can do the work that we think is important.
If only we had spent that 2 trillion or so that we spent on tax cuts and wars on research.
You can't spend money on a tax cut. The sentence doesn't make sense. How about spending the money DESPITE the Tax cut? That's just typical leftist idiocy.
I completely agree about not spending money on wars. However I think Fed spending taxpayer money on research is just as dumb as the rest of the pork crap the Fed has been doing all of my life.
the national highway system
Um... when did we stop spending on that? The Fed has also been using highway funding as a way to do unconstitutional things to the states for 50 years
the space program
Oh yes. That immediately led to all sorts of space activities by us citizens,
etc
keep listing! I'm loving this.
Once the government can create a network effect through jumpstarting an infrastructure
when does the Fed Gvt move back out? Please?
, private companies can move in and create huge economic ripple effects - again, I will use The Internet as a good example.
Um.. The fed didn't spend all that much "creating" the internet. But I'll give you that DARPA is a good example for you to use.
I agree wholeheartedly that we need to get back to a balanced budget,
Really? At what cost? EPA? HUD? DepEnergy? DepAgri? DeptEdu? DepDefence? FHLMC? FNMA? Health and Human Services? DepInterior? Medicare? Welfare? Social Security?
unfortunately, the last president actually was a drunken sailor ( or at least a dry drunk Vietnam evader ) who ran the country into the ground and amassed huge debts by giving tax breaks to the wealthy and engaging in two wars of choice.
Don't forget almost all of the presidents, with very few exceptions. Especially FDR and Obama.
I really think the problem isn't the presidents, it's the House of Representatives. Let's get that back under control, really. Cut costs down to the level where even the IRS is not needed. If the states what such and such a service, let them pick up the tab. The Fed has for too long been using Income Tax generated cash to control the states. Cut that out!
I suggest the next move should be winding back all the laws back to 1890 and then add back the things which are truly important. Divest each of the above agencies except those MANDATED by the Constitution.
BTW, taxing the wealthy is no way to balance the budget. A wealthy is paying my paycheck, and I'm paying taxes. Much better to induce the wealthy to create jobs. It's a multiplicative effect. Besides, I WANT to be wealthy. I spend too much time bellyaching on Slashdot to ever make it though. =8^)
I am really starting to think that a large percentage of my fellow humans are just insane. Do you guys really think that we will be burning toxic shit to get out power in the future? Is that the best we can do? For a bunch of technophiles, this is an awfully Luddite-like position.
The key is to get manufacturing to be completely off-planet. This nonsense of needing to get the energy down to the planetary surface to use it is nuts. Further, the waste products from manufacturing should not be left on the surface either. Turn the entire surface into a park and place to spend your weekends, and raise the kids and such.
Just thinkin.
Agree totally!
You're right, that's even better with an even brighter future if fusion ever (and it will!) pays off.
When fusion goes off it will be very bright, and rather brief.
oh. pays off? NM
You're saying that Congress essentially gave him a blank check to spend how he likes. Not exactly the kind of checks and balances that we should have.
You would prefer that the House of Representatives not do block granting of a trillion dollars at a time to the President with no strings?
Tesla is brought to you by the same people who brought us PayPal and SpaceX.
Except that they appear to have been subsidized with federal tax taxpayer money (something I despise) they could be good people doing a good/hard thing at the wrong time. I suspect that if the fed-govt wasn't so expensive these days that Tesla could stand on its own.
I remember the good old days, when Congress would appropriate money for projects. When, exactly, did Presidents get signing authority on the national checkbook?
The president is spending from the checkbook on an account created for him by Congress. This is the stimulus bill money from last year for which there was an immediate need. "Immediate"' is clearly not what it once was.
Abengoa Solar, a unit of the Seville, Spain-based engineering company, will receive a $1.45 billion loan guarantee to build a solar-power plant in Arizona that will create 1,600 construction jobs and 85 permanent jobs, according to White House documents released in conjunction with Obama’s address.
The power plant will be the first of its kind in the U.S. and generate enough energy to power 70,000 homes, Obama said.
1.45billion to power 70,000 homes.
That's $20,000 per home?
It would be a shame if geek-ness was TREATED to eliminate it.
There is an opposing side? This IS news.
The US is taken over by leftists. Who can afford luxury items anymore?
"I've seen it. It's rubbish." -- Marvin the Paranoid Android
