"Las Vegas, which by some accounts already glitters, wants $2 million for neon signs. Boynton Beach, Fla., is looking for $4.5 million for an 'eco park' featuring butterfly gardens and gopher tortoises. And Chula Vista, Calif., would like $500,000 to create a place for dogs to run off the leash.
These are among 18,750 projects listed in 'Ready to Go,' the U.S. Conference of Mayors' wish list for funding from the stimulus bill moving through Congress. The group asked cities and towns to suggest 'shovel ready' projects for the report, which it gave to Congress and the Obama administration."
Stimulating the economy back to 2005 would not be a good thing - we were wasting money we didn't even have, buying jewelry (bling) for our cell phones (!?!) and putting $50k/yr. families into $50k SUVs.
We need to stimulate HEALTHY spending. What's healthy spending? Investing to increase future earnings or to decrease future expenses. Building projects, though they sound good, will merely take workers off unemployment for the duration of the project, then put them back on the street when the project's done. Obama could take a page from Kennedy's book - putting a man on the moon gave us a surge of innovation and a huge psychological boost. It was ambitious, it was crazy, and it worked. President Obama needs his own "man on the moon."
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