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Home Front: WoT
Obama to End War, Invest in Infrastructure
2008-02-15
Possible dupe; it was two days ago.
In a speech today (Feb. 13)at the General Motors assembly plant in Janesville, Wis., Democratic presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama will call for the creation of a "National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank" that would invest $60 billion over 10 years in highways, technology and other projects. It would be an effort, Obama will say, to "rebuild America" and create 2 million jobs in the process.
$60 billion divided by 2 million jobs is $30,000 each.

Obama will say he would pay for the bank by "ending this war in Iraq. It's time to stop spending billions of dollars a week trying to put Iraq back together and start spending the money on putting America back together instead."

Text of remarks, from Obama's campaign, in .pdf format, here
Posted by:Bobby

#16  Of course, one could argue that preventing the bad guys from blowing up our infrastructure is itself an investment in infrastructure.
Posted by: Matt   2008-02-15 21:43  

#15  Bah. Obama is a piker. Vote for me. I'll freeze prices - except for gas which goes back to 1.29 per gallon. I'll quadruple the minimum wage. Oh, yeah and FREE healthcare for all.
VOTE FOR ME - I'LL SET YOU FREE
Posted by: SteveS   2008-02-15 20:30  

#14  So then we will sacrifice our military and readiness, just like Slick Willie did

Gonna be even worse than that if Obie is elected. We're already losing nearly all our more senior aerospace engineers, many of our most experienced intel analysts (the capable ones) etc. as the boomers begin to retire. In some areas we're just not recruiting enough capable people to replace them, in part due to uncertainty about the long term job market.

Watch a whole bunch of military of all ranks retire if Obie gets the nod, too.

Hollow nation is where we'd be heading.
Posted by: lotp   2008-02-15 20:01  

#13  As per other 2008 POTUS candidates + pols, OBAMA has PC talked or implied about "ending the war" in Iraq BUT NOT NECESSARILY THE US LEAVING OR PULLING OUT OF THE ME [downsizing].

IOW, presuming that OBAMA does de facto win agz HILLARY in 2008 and becomes POTUS in Jan 2009, RADICAL ISLAM STILL HAS NO SUBSTANTIVE GUARANTEE = OPTIMISM THAT HIS OR ANY NEW DEM ADMIN-CONGRESS WILL CHANGE THINGS AS PER US ME ENTRENCHMENT, ANDOR AS PER UNILATER, COMPLETE US-SPECIFIC REGIONAL PULLOUT AS DESIRED BY RADICAL ISLAM.

The Radical Islamist agenda is GLOBAL in scope, anti-Secularist, and UNCOMPROMISING AGZ ANY OTHER -ISM, MAKING IT BY DEFINITION INCOMPATIBLE WID EITHER WESTERN DEMOCRATIC CAPITALISM includ DEMOSOCIALISM, AS WELL AS AGZ SECULARIST LEFTIST/MARXIST-SOCIALISM. Again, the longer the US = US-West/Allies stay and entrench in the ME and elsewhere, the harder it will be for Radical Islam to milpol defeat them [Regionally or Globally], certainly vv force of arms.

YEAR 2008 -2010 > GIVEN US ENTRENCHMENT, AND AS DEPENDNET OF PROPER LEADERSHIP AND LOGISTICS, ETC,, THIS IS LIKELY THE LAST "BEST" WINDOW HWREUPON RADICLA ISLAM CAN UNILATER DEFEAT THE USA BY ITS OWN ISLAMIST FORCE OF ARMS WIDOUT NEED OF THE US INVADING IRAN, OR RESORT TO ANTI-US "GREAT POWER(S)"FOREIGN INTERVENTION, AND WID = WIDOUT ANY AMER HIROSHIMAS.

AFter Year 2010, RADICAL ISLAM > GREAT POWER CONFRONTATION + MUTUAL DESTRUCTION OPTIONS will be more important than any "Amer Hiroshima".
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2008-02-15 19:25  

#12  As per other 2008 POTUS candidates + pols, OBAMA has PC talked or implied about "ending the war" in Iraq BUT NOT NECESSARILY THE US LEAVING OR PULLING OUT OF THE ME [downsizing].

IOW, presuming that OBAMA does de facto win agz HILLARY in 2008 and becomes POTUS in Jan 2009, RADICAL ISLAM STILL HAS NO SUBSTANTIVE GUARANTEE = OPTIMISM THAT HIS OR ANY NEW DEM ADMIN-CONGRESS WILL CHANGE THINGS AS PER US ME ENTRENCHMENT, ANDOR AS PER UNILATER, COMPLETE US-SPECIFIC REGIONAL PULLOUT AS DESIRED BY RADICAL ISLAM.

The Radical Islamist agenda is GLOBAL in scope, anti-Secularist, and UNCOMPROMISING AGZ ANY OTHER -ISM, MAKING IT BY DEFINITION INCOMPATIBLE WID EITHER WESTERN DEMOCRATIC CAPITALISM includ DEMOSOCIALISM, AS WELL AS AGZ SECULARIST LEFTIST/MARXIST-SOCIALISM. Again, the longer the US = US-West/Allies stay and entrench in the ME and elsewhere, the harder it will be for Radical Islam to milpol defeat them [Regionally or Globally], certainly vv force of arms.

YEAR 2008 -2010 > GIVEN US ENTRENCHMENT, AND AS DEPENDNET OF PROPER LEADERSHIP AND LOGISTICS, ETC,, THIS IS LIKELY THE LAST "BEST" WINDOW HWREUPON RADICLA ISLAM CAN UNILATER DEFEAT THE USA BY ITS OWN ISLAMIST FORCE OF ARMS WIDOUT NEED OF THE US INVADING IRAN, OR RESORT TO ANTI-US "GREAT POWER(S)"FOREIGN INTERVENTION, AND WID = WIDOUT ANY AMER HIROSHIMAS.

AFter Year 2010, RADICAL ISLAM > GREAT POWER CONFRONTATION + MUTUAL DESTRUCTION OPTIONS will be more important than any "Amer Hiroshima".
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2008-02-15 19:25  

#11  Nice breakdown mhw.

Anyone else reminded of that South Park episode where everyone is walking around wanting 'change'?
Posted by: swksvolFF   2008-02-15 16:41  

#10  Is this a version of "Let my people go?"
Posted by: JohnQC   2008-02-15 16:35  

#9  $60B/10 years = $6B/yr

Most of the funds will go for materials, equipment and right of way; probably no more than 15% for labor. That's $300M/yr for labor. Because of Davis-Bacon, the wages will have to be union level 9even in right to work states). That means typically $20/hour for the least skilled work; $50/hour for the average. That's 6,000,000 hours of compensation. Figuring 1500 hours per person per year, that works to 4000 jobs per year.
Posted by: mhw   2008-02-15 16:00  

#8  No doubt the money would be passed thru Obama's "Patriotic Companies"....
Posted by: Gomez Glelet5371   2008-02-15 15:39  

#7  Miss Hillary already.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2008-02-15 15:16  

#6  Keep talkin big daddy. Keep talkin.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2008-02-15 15:09  

#5  The key is in order to get the highway funds each state must _____________ .

This was the trick that Republicans used to standardize the speed limits and drinking ages during Reagan. I doubt Obama would do things any differently. I'm not sure what he'd want/demand for the funds.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2008-02-15 14:47  

#4  So then we will sacrifice our military and readiness, just like Slick Willie did, and then build some of our infrastructure and feel-good projects with catchy names. When they are built, some angry Muzzy terrorists will take them down again. And we will all wring our hands and wonder why they hate us.....etc etc
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2008-02-15 14:37  

#3  See. The solutions to complex problems are simple. If we leave Iraq, it'll just "go away". If we throw lots of money at anything, it'll either "go away" or "get better".
Oh, shit. I sound like one of his supporters...
Posted by: tu3031   2008-02-15 14:27  

#2  .....$30,000 each FOR ONE YEAR.

And that's assuming that it got completely distributed to actual workers. My guess is that it will wind up being 500,000 jobs in government.
Posted by: AlanC   2008-02-15 14:11  

#1  $60 billion divided by 2 million jobs is $30,000 each ...Over the course of 10 years... or $3000 per year. That's some good jobs. Are those workers going to get health insurance with that, O?

Oh, and that leaves $0 for the acquisition of materials. Unless of course they are going to be rebuilding the infrastructure using nothing but pristine, environmentally sound unicorn farts.
Posted by: eLarson   2008-02-15 14:11  

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