Cha-ching!

I'm glad to see that Larry Summers thinks that we need to spend ridiculous amounts of money on this bailout operation. I think it's completely necessary, and as someone on Obama's economic "team" (whatever that means) I'm glad to see that Summers agrees. This is certainly no time for anything but decisive action. I also think that the idea of infrastructure investment is a sound one. While I advocate mass transit as much as possible, and oppose the building of new roads in most situations, I think that distributing the money to state governments in a "use it or lose it" fashion is the fastest and most feasible method of getting the cash circulating. Also- and I'm speculating- much of that money will be used to repair existing infrastructure, a task that I am not opposed to in a knee-jerk fashion. I believe that the Alaskan Way Viaduct should die, but money should still be spent on replacing it with a surface/transit option (I've been brainwashed by The Stranger). And some of this money is going to trickle into mass transit; I think it's that simple. Money should be invested in AmTrak, but I don't know how soon they could use it, and the purpose of the bill is going to be economic stimulus; infrastructure comes as a side bonus. Besides, if we end up switching to electric cars in the next ten to twenty years (something that I don't think is absurd; I believe the name of the game is 'energy' and not 'oil' and that America should be the world's largest manufacturer of high-efficiency large batteries) then that infrastructure will act as a benefit without as many carbon-emission negatives. So get excited! Here comes the trillion-dollar shot in the arm! Let's hope it does more good than Bush's impotent cash handout.