Discussing Obama's recent economic proposals the Economist published an article by the title Just don't call it stimulus in its Sept 11th 2010 publication. There were a few things that caught my attention in this article: (1) the infrastructure bank and (2) the oil and gas tax breaks.
For a politician so hellbent on increasing transparency and decreasing politicization why would you propose an infrastructure bank. The economist cites one opinion of this as a politicizing action, but nonetheless it is upsetting to see hypocritical rhetoric and action. How another bureaucratic institution will benefit the American public is beyond me. Paying more people to funnel money around to some more people who get paid to move that money to someone else is not efficient nor transparent.
Apparently to finance this infrastructure bill we will need to eliminate the "tax breaks for multinationals and oil and gas companies." How does eliminating the tax breaks for natural gas companies help utilize the abundant energy resources that the US posses? If the US is determined to eliminate its dependence upon foreign energy resources than why not facilitate the expansion of natural gas usage? This would be a logical step in securing the US' self-sufficiency in energy. However, eliminating the economic incentives for the private sector to expand upon this resource (especially considering the current economic conditions) is just plain stifling growth.
