The American Recovery and Reimbursement Act of 2009 has ended up being a standard Tax and Spend liberal social welfare bill. With only approximately 12% ($111 billion) going towards actual infrastructure spending. the balance of the legislation ended up being more transfer payments. What could have been a solid piece of legislation with a mix of tax cuts and incentives as well as much needed infrastructure spending ended up being a good idea gone bad.
The first mistake the Obama administration made is painting a broad picture of what they liked and then abdicating Leadership to a Pelosi, Obey, Frank, and Reid cabal of socialist tendencies. This massive measure of $787 billion will weigh the US Taxpayer down for many years to come.
Infrastructure Bonds
An opportunity to significantly improve this nations roads, highways, bridges, ports and waterways was lost. Instead, the vast majority of the monies were allocated to social welfare spending. Consequently, fewer jobs will be created. What the administration and the legislature could have done is create an Infrastructure Bond (similar to the War Bonds sold during WWII) to fund significant re-building and urgently needed new infrastructure projects.
Now, there will be political battles being fought among the states to see which projects will be funded, tightening the federal grip over the states. How will these funds be divided and who will make that decision??? Will states get a pro-rata share of the funds appropriated or will it be solely based on who can exercise the raw political power? It remains to be seen.
I for one will be checking closely on the web-site www.recovery.gov to see where the money will be going.
