Time to Look at Depression History (Budget Cuts/Archie)

despite what Archie Bunker said, (Man, we need a man like Herbert Hoover Again...)

We need to AVOID what the Tea-Bagger's Party wants us to do RIGHT now, which is to CUT public works and cutting SPENDING.  That is what they did during Hoover's presidency.  And he screwed up the cleanup of the Stock Market crash, and really made things MUCH MUCH WORSE...

Actually Archie is (as was the comment in this clip, saying Ross Perot saying, "I TOLD YOU SO..(3X)" was right.  (the ENTIRE clip is SO amusing, but skip to 1min 47 seconds to see what I am talking about)...-(UPDATE 11-14-11)

But as Hurricane Irene this past weekend has showed us, WE NEED to fix the infrastructure in this country.\

And We need to EMPLOY As MANY people as we can for A LONG LONG TIME.

THUS, MY PLAN :

Update the transportation system created by President Dwight D. Eisenhower (the Eisenhower Highway system).

In one (VERY LONG?) paragraph:

Expand the existing Eisenhower Highway system by adding (a minimum) of 4 NEW rail tracks (2 for passenger, and two for freight, cars and trucks).  This expansion will be separate from the existing national rail network, and will be run by the state or local authority that runs the existing roads.  The long term goals of this expansion are:

1. Allowing a tractor trailer or car (or any other vehicle) to get on the system on the East Coast and travel automatically to any point in the country.  
2. Reducing energy consumption, gas consumption and imported energy. 
3. A massive employment program that will work (as did the Eisenhower program) to employ workers for at least 20-30 years (long enough to have a Career, doing this). 
4. Getting our country to be more productive, reduce costs of transportation  and to introduce a smart system to allow modern technology to supplement the 20th century version of "the car as the medium".  This particular goal will allow a driver-less method for increasing productivity (no 10 hr behind the wheel, because the train will do the work), as well as automatically planning your routing.

Shame-Out:: (Third Time) It's the ECONOMY, (you) stupid congressmen...

Shame-Out:: (Third Time) IT's the Republicans (and the tea-party idiots) STUPID.

 OK.  Listening to MarketPlace on NPR,  I heard two economists discussing the June 2011 Unemployment drop (only 18,000 jobs created in June).

I said this, I will say this again.

It's not a single dip or Double dip RECESSION.  It's a ##^#&^#@$*&#@$^& DEPRESSION (2.0).

Get the facts.

• Companies that are sitting on billions in ca$h will NOT hire new workers, as the existing ones are being over-worked.
• Companies will NOT invest in new workers, making the problems worse.
• Republicans claim that cutting the deficit is key to getting the economy fixed.  NOT!
• In fact, the only reason we do not have an OFFICIAL unemployment rate of 16% TODAY  is because we DON'T count the people who are under-employed or gave up on looking.  Otherwise it would be much higher today, and perhaps at about 23% today.
• The $$$ that the federal government gave to local states and cities has ran out because the stimulus was limited.  Therefore, states and cities have cut over a QUARTER of a MILLION jobs in the past two years.

Republicans refuse to consider tax increases.  It now is time for them to realize that the 'trickle-down' economy concept has failed.  We have two Americas (one highly educated, and motivated, and one of  'burger-flippers', employing a huge percentage of our country) and we also have two Financial Americas.  Corporations, and "Multi-millionaires", versus 'the rest of us'.

We need to address this huge imbalance.  For republicans to ignore this imbalance, and still claim, "TRICKLE-DOWN", is simply like a huge "Trick on the down and out!".

It's time for the congress to get off of it's REAR, and actually do a stimulus LARGER then the last time.


HINT:  see my discussion on green job building and Eisenhower Highway Expansion.

Spending trillions of dollars on a NEW transportation system (not re-using existing rail lines) is green:

To reiterate:

• Use existing Eisenhower highway system and establish 4 new rail tracks on every highway.
• 2 Tracks would be for freight/trucks/motor vehicles.
• 2 tracks would be used for mass transit.

Benefits:

1. Federal jobs creation program.  Construction will take 15-25 years [it took that long to finish some parts of the Eisenhower system]  giving lifetimes of employment to current and future workers.
2. Green program.  Project objectives are 
• Reduce # of trucks/diesel/buses (and especially gas and emissions) on road.
• Program would seek to get both trucks or just trailers (and cars -SUV's too) from origination point to destination as fast and as fuel efficiently as possible, increasing productivity, and reducing emissions, fuel consumption and driver time behind the wheel.
3. Technology Driven:  Program objectives would be cost reduction via technology, reducing fuels, and needs for drivers going cross country.  
• Cargo should be able to go on a trailer, or with a truck.
• Rail system would use existing right of ways of highways.
• Totally separate from existing freight lines, but would interconnect.
• Existing Railroads would not be running these systems.
• Technology would allow national 'ez-pass' type electronic billing system for interoperability with all systems.
• Commuter rail portion of system would also be technology driven.

In summary again, we are NOT in a recession, but a full blown DEPRESSION 2.0.

In order to get out of this, we need to drastically increase spending, and have a PROGRAM and way out to:

• Rebuild our economy
• Rebuild the  MANUFACTURING and construction sector.
• Re-Train our workforce (from a service 'burger-flipping' mentality) to meaningful middle-class jobs.
• Create the "Green Economy", that everyone claims they want.
• Reduce fuel emissions DRASTICALLY
• Reduce gas and Diesel usage
• Make transportation a Technology driven , growth industry.
• Stop the political bickering, and allow our government to work together to solve our problems.