I don’t get what all the fervor is about. One of the projects under so much scrutiny in Obama’s stimulus bill is the $448 million set aside for the erection of the Department of Homeland Security building. I will be the first to attest that there is a shitload of fluff in this package, that has nothing to do with stimulus and job creation. The cutting of the education portion of the bill, while unfortunate, was the right call. For that I applaud the Republicans. It was spending, clear and simple, not stimulus. What I don’t understand is their opposition to the DHS building.
The building’s construction is exactly the kind of spending needed in this bill. Perhaps not enough people remember their New Deal instruction in school. One of the essential and most effective tools in FDR’s New Deal was the WPA. The WPA was the Works Progress Administration, it provided millions of jobs to people in desperate times in the form of Public Works projects. Everything from tarring roads to erecting buildings. The most impressive part about it? It worked. Buildings like the DHS are an attempt by Obama to do the same type of program without actually setting up the government agencies that his critics call socialist.
Recently the new chairman of the GOP, Michael Steele, came out and said that projects like the DHS building were “work” not “jobs”, because it is only temporary (Here’s a link to a great take on it). If I’m an unemployed father looking to feed and fund my family, that year or two long job looks pretty fucking fantastic to me. Plus it gives me the opportunity to possibly learn a new trade, because obviously the one I was in before isn’t exactly hopping anymore.
Like the DHS project the WPA was also a temporary measure. The WPA even solved problems in my home town. The very auditorium I sat in on my High School campus was a WPA project. So I guess my question is, if these programs were proven to have worked during the worst depression we have ever faced, why wouldn’t they work now? What evidence is there that points to this as anything other than a successful model for stop-gap employment while our economy rights itself? Like I said before, I don’t get what all the fervor is about. Yes this bill is flawed, but this isn’t one of the areas needing to be fixed.
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