Repair Our General Welfare
The Preamble of the Constitution says:
"We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
We need to address our general welfare including items that aide the country in the pursuit of happiness by its' people. Historically, this meant the railroads, the interstate highway system, the flood control system along the Mississippi, the public education system, the Erie Canal, the Hoover Damn, our electrical grid, safe air transportation, our water and sewage systems, high speed internet, disaster relief and avoidance, the national weather service and free markets
The time is perfect to repair and build infrastructure. Interest rates are low and there is an excess supply of labor. The greatest asset of this nation is its people. Let's put them to work to assist in providing our general welfare.
I recognize the debt problem and we must develop and implement a plan to solve it now. Part of the solution is to increase our GDP and we need modern infrastructure. We need the American worker to rebuild it. Fixing our infrastructure is not in conflict with solving our debt problem; it is part of the solution. Let's do it
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It is worth noting yet again that, when Obama put forward an $800 Billion stimulus package, there were approximately $1.5 Trillion of needed repairs and upgrades to this nations infrastructure, while $70-80 Bilion was needed annually to maintain said infrastructure. It is also worth noting (yet again) that the Obama Stimulus contained a whopping $80 billion for such items--a maintenance budget, in other words.
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