“Over the next six years,” Mr. Obama promised “we are going to rebuild 150,000 miles of our roads — that’s enough to circle the world six times; that’s a lot of road. We’re going to lay and maintain 4,000 miles of our railways — enough to stretch coast-to-coast. We’re going to restore 150 miles of runways and advance a next-generation air-traffic control system to reduce travel time and delays for American travelers — I think everybody can agree on that.”
We're looking at $50 billion in infrastructure and $100 billion in an R&D tax credit, plus another $200 billion in the form of a tax write-off for capital investments.
The infrastructure and R&D credit is great news, but will Kent Conrad vote for it? Who the hell knows at this point. Which is probably why it's not $100 billion or $200 billion in infrastructure -- which is what we really need.
But I was in Gettysburg on Monday and the whole trip was ripe with Recovery Act projects. Route 30 is being expanded to four lanes; the battlefield around Culp's Hill has brand new roads, drainage and culverts; and there are several houses on the battlefield being refurbished. And, predictably, there was a pack of far-right Civil War re-enactors gathered at one of the town pubs bitching about socialism and spending and birth certificates. Clueless.
Adding... Brad DeLong via Jon Cohn calculates the job creation from the infrastructure legislation:
Economist and blogger Brad Delong figures that if the proposal were to become law soon (a big assumption) and inject $50 billion of public works spending in the first year (also a big assumption), it would reduce unemployment by a modest 0.3 percentage points.
Still, that’s 465,000 jobs, at least on the back of my envelope. That's not trivial, particularly to the 465,000 people who hold them.
Another reason to suggest that the number ought to be at least $150 billion. Nevertheless, it's doubtful that $50 billion will make it through Congress and especially The Senate Insufferables.
