A1A South

From the Washington Post:

President-elect Barack Obama is developing a plan to create or preserve 2.5 million jobs over the next two years by spending billions of dollars to rebuild roads and bridges, modernize public schools, and construct wind farms and other alternative sources of energy.

The plan, which Obama announced yesterday during the weekly Democratic radio address, is more expansive — and undoubtedly more expensive — than anything proposed so far to revive the nation’s deteriorating economy. Obama said the darkening economic outlook demands that Washington act “swiftly and boldly” to diminish the risk that the nation “could lose millions of jobs next year.”

“The news this week has only reinforced the fact that we are facing an economic crisis of historic proportions,” Obama said, citing chaotic financial markets, rising jobless claims and the specter of a “deflationary spiral that could increase our massive debt even further.” He provided few details and no price tag, but said his economic team is working on “a plan big enough to meet the challenges we face that I intend to sign soon after taking office.”

While cast as a response to a rapidly worsening crisis, the plan could enable Obama to shift massive sums to domestic priorities that Democrats say have long been neglected, such as health care and education. It also could provide seed money to reshape major U.S. industries, hastening the production of wind and solar energy and fuel-efficient cars, for example. Obama said the plan would be “a down payment on the type of reform my administration will bring to Washington.”

Obama has scheduled his second formal news conference since the election for tomorrow to introduce his economic team, including Federal Bank of New York President Timothy F. Geithner, Obama’s nominee for Treasury secretary. According to Democratic sources, Harvard economist Lawrence Summers, a Clinton administration Treasury chief, will be named director of the National Economic Council. In this capacity, Summers will coordinate the Obama administration’s overall economic policy.

Obama’s advisers are coordinating with Democrats in Congress to craft a proposal intended to spur economic activity. Congressional leaders have said they hope to pass it shortly after the new Congress convenes next year and have it on Obama’s desk soon after he takes office on Jan. 20.

Obama’s address echoed many of the same ideas Democrats on Capitol Hill have been advocating for nearly a year.

Obama said his plan would launch “a two-year nationwide effort to jump-start job creation in America and lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy. We’ll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children, and building wind farms and solar panels,” as well as producing fuel-efficient cars.

Oh, goody. More tax dollars down the drain with an even more bloated bureaucracy for life to deal with administering those political jobs. States with functioning governments have infrastructure. I’m sure the states and cities with the failed governments will be “rewarded” with the majority of the tax dollars to piss away. Again.

From Frank Beckmann at Detroit News, questions the auto industry should be asking members of Congress:

Why did members of Congress — such as House Banking Chairman Barney Frank, Senate Banking Chairman Christoper Dodd and others — raise fuel economy standards, adding more than $85 billion in costs as the industry was restructuring itself?

If the reason was forcing automakers to deal with higher gasoline prices, perhaps the politicians could explain why they have made fuel more scarce by blocking domestic drilling for oil and preventing new refineries from being built during the past three decades.

If global warming was the reason, perhaps the politicians could explain why some scientists now point to cooling temperatures while carbon dioxide levels continue to rise.

Our politicians like to claim the automakers have been slow to react to changing consumer demand. Perhaps they’d care to explain U.S. Energy Department figures that show flex-fuel vehicles, many made by the Detroit Three, accounted for a mere 6 percent of sales in 2007, while hybrid vehicle sales accounted for 2.6 percent of the market.

Politicians who insist on claiming that foreign manufacturers emphasize “green” technology over muscle might explain why sales last year of Toyota Tacoma and Tundra trucks were 30 percent higher than its hybrid vehicle sales.

Next, the execs and Gettelfinger could begin querying lawmakers about the credit crisis, born of government decisions that forced tens of billions of dollars in loans through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to borrowers who were unqualified and high credit risks. This, in turn, has led to the reduced availability of credit for potential car buyers and helped send auto sales plunging.

We wouldn’t expect the lawmakers to apologize for their lengthy list of mistakes. We wouldn’t expect them to admit their role in creating the trouble. They never do.

Why did Congress deliberately engineer this recession? I’d like to know.

Update: I really didn’t mean the “grilling” part in the title. I really meant “tarring” and “feathering” and I’m considering “get a rope”.