Opinions

Our View- Obama’s $51 billion plan will help economy

The last economic monthly unemployment report before the elections revealed an unchanged rate of unemployment from August to September at 9.6 percent. It also showed that the nation had lost 95,000 jobs in the public sector, but added 64,000 jobs in the private sector. The leisure and hospitality industries added 34,000 jobs and health care alone added 24,000 jobs. On the other hand, manufacturing remained flat and construction suffered with a loss of 21,000 jobs.

President Obama, nevertheless, pitched a $51 billion plan to fund roads, railways and runways on Monday. This would ultimately create more jobs in construction where the current rate of unemployment stands at 17 percent.

Introduced around Labor Day, the plan is now critical to avoiding a decline in worker productivity. According to the president, the longer we wait to fix the problems in the infrastructure of America, “the deeper our competitive edge erodes.” Common sense tell us this situation will get worse if action is not taken soon.

The truth is that America’s infrastructure is not up to par. Roads, bridges, railroads and power lines just scream danger. It would be unfortunate to see ‘taking action’ overlooked where it is much needed.

And to speak of truth again, we would not mind seeing a sort of stimulus if it was intended for infrastructure spending with no strings attached.

It would be unfair to judge this plan based on the other attempts that Obama has made to create jobs, because there hasn’t actually been an attempt made to improve infrastructure.

If Obama were to start a huge expansion of government spending, then there would be evidence of it demonstrated by the unemployment rate. This plan could potentially be the first step.

Now, here comes the tricky part. The president would need support from both Democrats and the Republicans. Democrats may be more likely to bite as they too want to prove that the economy will improve under Obama even if they don’t necessarily agree with government spending.

However, Republicans are already showing disinterest as they categorically disagree with any spending plan in order to boost the economy. They are also highlighting the fact that a predominately Democrat Senate has for a recess to dismiss the idea. We’re not quite sure how their conclusions follow from that premise.

With expected Repunblican gains in the House, the $50 billion payment would likely need to be approved by a lame-duck Congress next month.

The Los Angleles Times reported that one GOP aide had said “if the president were serious about passage, it would have been easier if he’d held Monday’s event before the Senate left town to campaign for midterm elections.”

Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), then went on to say that “because the November lame-duck session is all booked up, the very earliest the Senate could consider the president’s proposal now would be December,” but even then it would be an unlikely occurrence.

Yes, this plan has an awfully large price tag of $50 billion. But it would boost the economy — its biggest benefit — and it would see taxpayer dollars put to good use. Obama affirmed that it would not “add to our deficit over time,” either.

Although it would take time for all the projects to be completed, it would be nice to see some kind of effort put into the seemingly everlasting problem of infrastructure.

Besides, when you look good, you perform well. So, why not encourage a better-looking America?

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