James Pethokoukis of US News & World Report has just published an interesting article titled, “The Return of Big Government.”
He suggests that there is no way for either a Republican or Democratic administration to come in without spending a lot of money to deal with everything from climate change to the Iraq War to housing and health care.
My colleague Sherle Schwenninger, who directs New America’s Economic Growth Program, is quoted that national infrastructure alone needs $150 billion/year to deal credibly with the collapse of internal road and bridge infrastructure in addition to next generation infrastructure platforms that the nation needs to regain its footing for economic growth and innovation.
Others suggest that we are digging ourselves into bigger deficits and we need to cut it all.
There is no “political optimism” possible if the next administration is compelled to strangle down much needed infrastructure investment after the reckless war spending that the Bush administration has brought us.
And did anyone hear Andrea Mitchell say the other day that America’s spending on Iraq was not affecting the economy? She may be married to Alan Greenspan — but that is a seriously out of touch comment.
— Steve Clemons
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