More importantly is the obligation of the debt. Look at what percent of collected tax dollars go to paying interest on the debt. That’s money shifted from the working class to the wealthy - for those who care about income distribution.

Again the problem here is that nobody has any long-term will any more. Take just one of those items. $320bn over 10 years for transport infrastructure. That relies on the next two presidents and 10 years of house and senate to keep funding it. That’ll just never happen. Because of the bitching, in-fighting and…

If I were Obama, the biggest changes he can make in his remaining term would be to cut as much wasteful spending from the budget as he can legally do. Then propose a series of cuts the congress would be willing to work with to fund a true infrastructure plan.

Another good point. I should have googled that one first. It’s still kinda scary and note this is a very political argument so the numbers are all over the board.

The blue line is percent GDP, not raw GDP. I had to look twice, too.

It did none of those things. The bailout of the banks (not the stimulus plan) stabilized the economy. The money that was spent on infrastructure was low hanging fruit (repaving) and did nothing to kickstart the economy. And most of that money was borrowed anyway, so we just went into more debt. A ton of it went to…

I would doubt much of it would be productive. Remember the Stimulus package? Almost none of it went for what they said it was intended for. It went to political payoffs and wasteful projects.

Not really. If the stuff was actually PAID for without debt then you might have a point. But borrowing money to pay for all this shit, no matter the value, means you are still in debt. The bank does not lend you $250k with a mortgage and then says your net worth went up by that amount. That isn't how it works. Until…

You have a decent point, but your graph doesn't exactly lend confidence either.

Barrack Obama is no John F. Kennedy.

In the history of US policy, there has never been a more ambitious science-focused document to originate from the White House.

That’s the whole point of trying to move our transportation system away from one that relies entirely on the presence of cheap gas. Do nothing and be caught with our pants down when oil goes back up to $100 a barrel, or start investing now when we can best afford it?

When you put it that way, it is kinda like asking for a Lexus when you only have enough money for a golf cart.

And when (not if, when) oil goes back over $100 a barrel those poor people are going to be screwed.

This isn’t a moonshot, it’s a wish list. The moonshot was a specific mission. Success and failure was clearly defined. Blunting climate-change is somewhat of a common thread, but it’s not all designed for a specific goal within the field.

Let’s dispel, once and for all, with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing. He knows exactly what he’s doing. Barack Obama is undertaking a systematic effort to change this country, to make America more like the rest of the world.

why dont more people understand this?

Such a buzzkill. :(. It does move the conversation forward though. The sad thing is, the government is too wasteful, too slow, too bureaucratic to be counted on to carry these ideas to fruition.

• There is a 21st Century Clean Transportation Plan where $320 billion over 10 years will increase spending on trains, subways, light rail, bike infrastructure, and sidewalks, and change the way we spend existing transportation funds—all paid for by a tax on oil companies.

Those are all brave, beautiful goals. Can we realistically fund them?