Page 664 - Infrastructure Projects News Today

Down the road. >> gregg: the remaining unspent stimulus money includes funding for among other things, major high-speed rail, which the president said we really need so we can catch up with europe, japan and china and heres what the "washington post" editorial said about that. of all of the reasons to build high speed rail in the u.s., keeping up with the international joneses may be one of the the worst, in fact experience abroad has repeatedly raised questions about the cost-effectiveness of h...

Build a high speed rail that many people dont actually want. its absolutely bewildering to me. >> its interesting. this is not unlike what governor christie did when he cancelled the tunnel because he thought the state was going to be on the hook for too much of the cost. that is one debate. the other debate is one kinds of infrastructure projects if any are needed to make america more competitive. that is debate they could both have. if republicans dont feel high speed is the answer, what is th...

Spending is and where the deficit goes. as toby says, dont you have to start some place? >> you have to start somewhere at $2.5 trillion, thats still a very large number. i think we go much further than that to be honest with you. i agree with jonas theres more we can do. the entitlement programs is where we do a lot of our spending. however, we have to look at the government and realize that these corporations as gary made in the opening here, theyre cutting back. theyre back to spending at 200...

And make it better and stronger. i think you are going to see more of that in this speech. you are also going to see calls for great infrastructure improvements and grand projects like we have had throughout this country and years. we build highways, dams, great things. we can do that now. there are a lot of infrastructure needs in this country that we have been putting off. there is no better time to do it. of course there needs to be budget cuts. i agree. we have to spend the money in the plac...

>> >> jamie: christopher, let me pop in for a second. wasnt the stimulus package all about infrastructure. shovel ready projects getting money to people. >> 45% of the stimulus was tax cuts. another 30% of it was aid to states to keep them from firing cops, teachers and nurses. then there was some money that went to infrastructure projects. we need a renewal of our long-term transportation capital budget in this country. the president needs to push for that this year. he needs to find the money ...

Labor day, $50 million worth of infrastructure projects, building roadways, railways, and the big push it to try to make the pitch here that he is doing everything he can, the administration, everything they can, to create more jobs specifically for the middle class. they are talking about three segments, manufacturing, retail and construction. these three areas have lost tremendous jobs. if they were able to create the numbers, the kinds of jobs in those sectors, they believe it would make a bi...

Create jobs. thats what we need to do what fdr did during the great depression. infrastructure projects. the infrastructure is crumbling. why not use this time to create jobs and renew our unfra struck. its in desperate need of renewal even if were at full moimt. >> i want to look at three major issues that matter to your money, taxes. president obama believes tax cuts should be extended. republicans say everyone, including the wealthy should get the extension. the president wants to exclude the...

I want to ask you as a economist is the second stimulus a good or bad idea. >> the fact of the matter is, everybody, including doug supports stimulus, its just different kinds of stimulus. a tax cut is stimulus in virtually the same way as a spending program is stimulus. plus everyone is supporting monetary stimulus. the issue is not -- gregg: im talking about recommending to the president -- >> let me explain the difference here. since the republicans support stimulus and the democrats support ...

>> greta: do you mean the money has again out to the agencies or they can have it if they need it and we go further in debt. on the ledger we recognize this has been assigned but the money isnt necessarily there. isnt it more borrowing? >> in some cases the money has been handed over to the agencies that are to do the spending. in other cases it is just they have a line of credit on the treasury that they can draw on when these projects are ready. my point is, the dollars have not been spent on ...

>> greta: do you mean the money has again out to the agencies or they can have it if they need it and we go further in debt. on the ledger we recognize this has been assigned but the money isnt necessarily there. isnt it more borrowing? >> in some cases the money has been handed over to the agencies that are to do the spending. in other cases it is just they have a line of credit on the treasury that they can draw on when these projects are ready. my point is, the dollars have not been spent on ...