Today's HuffingtonPost.com reports:
"High-Speed Rail Plan: Obama To Make Announcement After State Of The Union Speech"
The story is not "instant sunshine breaking through storm-clouds of economic disaster" (for millions of American families), and it is only $8 billion of intended funding, but at least it is something of a recognition that GIVING BILLIONS to BANKERS is NOT improving the economy.
The notion that some banks are "TOO BIG TO FAIL" is just a stunning example how wholly the CONCEIT and ARROGANCE and LIES of the TBTF (too big to fail) bankers has saturated American press, media, academic and government debate and discussion over the past years, because FOR THE SAME __TRILLIONS $$__ that the Bush and Obama White Houses (and.... "DEMOCRATIC" Pelosi Congress!) have HANDED to the "TBTF" Bankers, Obama and the Congress could instead have spent money "FOR STUFF" - could have PURCHASED projects with those billions and trillions, and had FULL EMPLOYMENT in one year flat...
($20+ TRILLION taxpayer dollars that have gone to the bankers is a lot of money - nearly 2x the ENTIRE ANNUAL US GDP, which by definition, GDP = "product produced in a year for a given country" means very close to full employment when GDP for that country actually starts producing more "stuff")
...just as by the end of 1942 American factories were hiring thousands of workers, and were producing material and supplies to make good on wartime losses; hiring and producing in numbers that finally ended Great Depression unemployment, just a year after so many Americans woke to discover the US Pacific fleet lay in smoking ruins in the mud of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 while America was still mired in the Depression.
Back on January 2nd, we wrote:
< Despite spending BILLIONS upon TRILLIONS of our taxpayer dollars to prop up the failed and fraudulent bankers & Wall Street over the past 2 years (and billions more via back-door "fed liquidity injections" in years previous to 2007) we can report that you have NOT created ONE SINGLE NET JOB over ten years, even though Americans are crying out, _not_ for more bankster bonus billionaires, but for MORE HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS who ACTUALLY PROVIDE HEALTH CARE, or for GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIZED SOLAR PANELS for EVERY home in the Sun-belt, or for a HIGH SPEED RAIL linking Richmond to DC, NY, and Boston (and reducing hazardously crowded auto and air traffic on that corridor), or for DOZENS of other programs that WOULD ACTUALLY PRODUCE STUFF and CREATE JOBS! >
Today's report is only a sketch of an outline, but like any effective military campaign, business strategy, or government plan THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS, namely the "BANG for YOUR BUCK" factor and "WHO is making the most money off these deals?"
IF President Obama allows the majority of such spending to go to "CONSULTING FIRMS" and WEALTHY PROPERTY OWNERS, it will be ANOTHER BOONDOGGLE as the Obama-Bushie "Bailouts" have been. (And, more specifically, as Florida's insanely corrupt Republican governors and legislators have turned the $8.7 BILLION dollar _federal_ (national) taxpayer funded Everglades Restoration program into a Republican SLUSH FUND, and Fanjul family (and other wealthy property owners) pork fest.)
And, with so many other nations now having competent, reliable High Speed Trains in service, there would of course be NO EXCUSE for such a boondoggle. In good old MILITARY CONTRACTING style, the President should concentrate on building the first stretch of High Speed Rail WHERE EVERYONE CAN SEE IT - between Washington DC and New York - but SPREAD SUPPLY and BUILDING contracts OVER RECESSION-PLAGUED STATES.
< WASHINGTON — A day after delivering a State of the Union address aimed at showing recession-weary Americans he understands their struggles, President Barack Obama intends to award $8 billion in stimulus funds to develop high-speed rail corridors and sell the program as a jobs creator.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden plan to announce grants for 13 major corridors during a town hall meeting in Tampa, Fla., Thursday, the president's first public appearance following his speech to the nation. It's an attempt by the White House to show that getting Americans back to work is the president's top priority and that he has a plan for how to do it. >
