Our debt problems are long term, in the short term there is no reason we shouldn't be building roads and bridges.
This is true, but the US government is not over extended ATM; We are on a path to over extension in the long term but we can "invest in the future" even as we "tighten our belts" as Obama usually says... I think it's obvious to us all that even as the government cuts it's budget it is going to be borrowing for quite some time; If we borrow just enough to reach full employment now - not later - than our long term fiscal situation actually gets better, not worse, because more revenue would be coming in and our economy would be growing at a faster pace.
edit: here's a few numbers: In 2010, the deficit was ~10% of GDP - in 2013 it is projected to be at ~4% GDP... So it's not a short term problem. But like I said, we do have a long term problem... By 2085 US yearly deficits are projected to be ~62% of GDP! That's staggering of course, but as you can see by these numbers our problem is not short term - it's long term. Do I sound redundant yet? I hope so, because for some reason you righties have completely missed this point.
here is the folly in your thinking, the govt doesnt/cant set demand. the market does.
ie the volt. windmills, solar panels, ethanol, post office, the bridge to nowhere, etc .
so what will happen is you get some govt fat cat to finance his "personal" highway or bridge or fbi building or fill in the blank and the money isnt spent smartly.
can you get a more perfect example than ethanol? my God man, the money that we sent down the shitter for this and the economic problems that were set into motion world wide because of corn shortages, borders on criminal.
this doesnt happen a little bit, it happens constantly.
and you are one of the ones suggesting "high speed rail". talk about throwing money down the shitter. basically every public transportation project in the US is a dreaded money pit. high speed rail would be a beautifully painted, union made and operated train, that nobody uses. a complete waste of money. nobody would use it, including you.
i can point to the big dig in boston that was a cluster fuck, the chunnel in europe, and about a thousand other projects initiated by govt.
you guys like to point to the internet as a govt project that was/is useful. it wasnt made useful by the govt. it was made useful by businessmen and women. and the majority of it was built by private sector business who started building huge, profit making servers, search engines, sales sites like ebay etc.
you can take any govt agency you want, look at the internals, and find that their methods and equiptment are decades behind the private sector.
