I support more stimulus spending. A lot more. But only focused on real projects. No theoretical ones.

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Truth, Justice and the American way

How about we bypass the gov't and leave the moneyin the People's hands?? Instead of taking the money from the people then giving the money back to the People, we just leave it the hands of the People?? We can use some infrastructure spending, but that's about it. The rest is just buying people's votes with their own money and then claiming to be helping.

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Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

Leftists and very small children don't seem to be able to understand that the Government isn't there to "fix" the economy, anymore than a tick is there to fix your dog.~Oftencold

I said I was for a lot of spending but only on focused projects. Bridges, Buildings like schools that need it. Hiways. Airports, High Speed Rail. Things that create jobs and infustructure.

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Truth, Justice and the American way

Highways and bridges? Yes, they need maintenance, but the costs MUST be controlled and the quality improved.
Airports and schools - should be 100% private enterprise.
High Speed Rail is FAR too expensive to implement due to land costs.

It's this kind of thinking that screws up what could be a good thing. We don't need the gov't doing the things that private enterprise can do and we don't need the gov't doing things that cost FAR more than any benefit they could possibly provide. What need is the gov't doing the right things using the right methods.

Highways are a classic example of the right thing done using the wrong methods. Costs are grossly overblown and quality is way under what it should be. I have a good friend who's a retired roller operator. He told me that 40 years ago, the aggregate they used was substantially harder than what they are using today and the tar was substantially hotter. Harder aggregate lasts longer and the hotter tar binds to the aggregate better and loows the asphault to compact better, making the raod surface stronger and more durable. By cutting standards in these two areas, we've allowed our roads to deteriorate at a substantially faster rate than ever before. Why were these standards cut?? Two reasons
1. Because there was only so much money to go around and labor costs were going up and up, so costs had to be cut somewhere.
2. To create a place to throw money at in order to create work that could have been avoided, but is now necessary, allowing our Congresscritters to be the heros who bring in the road repairs/jobs to fix what should have never been broken in the first place.

This is the kind of crap that happens when the gov't is in charge of this kind of thing. Hand over management to a private firm and give them a fixed margin with a bonus for cost savings and you would end up with better roads, because a private firm understands that short-term investment that leads to long term savings is a good thing. My friend the retired roller operator told me that you could tell the difference between a gov't road adn a private one just by looking at the standards. Private jobs had FAR higher standards than gov't jobs with fewer cost-adding restrictions. Politicians, on the other hand understand that short term savings and benefits lead to re-election, while long term savings are never remembered by the electorate.

Now I said all this to make a point. Our solution isn't to create more gov't involvement, it's to cut costs. Having the gov't do more things that could and should be privatized is a bad idea, since it results in additional costs. We definitely have some things that need fixing, but doing the same thing that broke them in the first place is not the solution.

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Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

Leftists and very small children don't seem to be able to understand that the Government isn't there to "fix" the economy, anymore than a tick is there to fix your dog.~Oftencold

I go back to my Grand Cooley dam story. The infustructure created the oppurtunity for thousands of companies and industries. You make the investment not for the jobs the investment makes directly but for the jobs it creates from the infustructure itself. If you had High Speed rail from Coast to Coast you would create a resurgence of business to middle America. A revitalization lots of areas. If there is something wrong about the way government spends money fix that. Don't be afraid to do things because they have been done badly at times.

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Truth, Justice and the American way

Yeah. Let's do high speed rail. Is it going to be diesel or electric locomotives? Electric means all new infrastructure and that means land. Can you say "imminent domain?" And with "skyrocketing" electricity rates it's sure to be a wise investment. Like Amtrak, it'll lose money and need constant tax dollars to keep it afloat. So yeah...let's do it.

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"Free people are not equal & equal people are not free." --- Mackinac Center for Public Policy

Natural gas, I like it. You plug your train in to cows butts on the way Imminant domain isn't an issue for me if it's done for a good cause.

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Truth, Justice and the American way

Maybe I wasn't clear in my first post, I never said they sabotaged the economy when Bush was in the White House, what Bush and the Republican controlled Congress did was just bad fiscal policy that drove the deficits up and more than doubled the National debt.

What I said is that the Current Republican controlled House and the Minority Senate are Sabotaging the economy NOW in an attempt to defeat Obama in November. They have been blocking any progress since they gained control of the House.

Very funny Considering 169 of your own voted for the First Bush Stimulus as well...

H.R. 5140 (110th): Economic Stimulus Act of ... (On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass) -- GovTrack.us


And then let's not forget TARP, which your people also joined in voting for and the Republican President didn't bother to Veto...

U.S. Senate: Legislation & Records Home > Votes > Roll Call Vote

And while we're at it let me remind you of the Most Disastrous Stimulus passed in the last 15 years, the Bush Tax Cuts, which were pushed through by Republicans under Bush's' first three years. Tax cuts which blew a huge hole in the Deficits. Then you tack on two unfunded Wars, a unfunded prescription drug plan, and a whole new expansion of Government which was also NOT PAID FOR, the Department of Homeland Security... and now you can tell me just who is the big spenders here.

I'll bet you if Willard manages to get himself elected you'll see the House pass a stimulus because they know it is what is needed to get this economy going. Whether it be spending on Infrastructure or More tax cuts, or maybe some spending on block grants they will pass something. The only reason they won't do it now is because they know it would assure Obama a second term, which in my opinion is worse than a treasonous act.

So then who sabotaged it in 2006 when the depression started? It didn't just happen when Obama got in, it was already underway. If you are saying Bush's fiscal policies did it, exactly which fiscal policies are you talking about?

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When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people are going to be disappointed they are not it.