<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content=text/html;charset=utf-8 http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.19154"></HEAD>
<BODY style="PADDING-LEFT: 10px; PADDING-RIGHT: 10px; PADDING-TOP: 15px"
id=MailContainerBody leftMargin=0 topMargin=0 CanvasTabStop="true"
name="Compose message area">
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>I can't say where all the so-called trillion
went. But I know where some of it went: Interstate Highway System
repairs and enhancements. I know this because of the signage I saw on two
cross country trips I made this summer and other trips in Washington and
Montana. I saw at least a dozen projects.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>When money is spent in on public infrastructure,
the public gets the fruits of such expenditures in two ways: improvement
of the infrastructure (and the support it provides for all aspects of the
economy which depend on transportation) and jobs which allow further spending
and circulation of the monies invested.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Verdana>These projects are seldom done perfectly and can
be rife with corruption and inefficiency, but at least something gets done which
benefits the general public more than the bail-outs, which not only pervert the
so-called free enterprise system, but benefits those generally not needing
benefits -- the wealthy.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt Tahoma"><FONT face=Verdana></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt Tahoma"><FONT face=Verdana></FONT>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana>And here's another infrastructure debt that we better
start paying on: health care and especially mental health care for
veterans. Failure to address this issue would not only be grossly unfair
to those we asked to serve our country, but will lead to more murders and
violence by those who served in Viet-Nam, Iran, and Afghanistan combat
units.</FONT></DIV><FONT face=Verdana></FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt Tahoma"> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt Tahoma"><FONT face=Verdana>w.</FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt Tahoma">
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5">
<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=jborden@datawedge.com
href="mailto:jborden@datawedge.com">Jay Borden</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Friday, November 04, 2011 2:04 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=Vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">Vision2020@moscow.com</A> ; <A
title=deco@moscow.com href="mailto:deco@moscow.com">deco@moscow.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Vision2020] Putting Millionaires Before
Jobs</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Ok... so you're answer is basically "where spending nearly a
trillion didn't work, spending $60B will succeed."<BR><BR>Jay<BR><BR>Sent from
my Android phone... so ignore the typpos... <BR><BR><BR>-----Original
Message-----<BR>From: Art Deco [deco@moscow.com]<BR>Received: Friday, 04 Nov
2011, 1:16pm<BR>To: Vision 2020 [Vision2020@moscow.com]<BR>Subject: Re:
[Vision2020] Putting Millionaires Before Jobs<BR><BR><BR>I'd suggest that you
spend sometime learning about the current state of our county's transportation
infrastructure problems.<BR><BR>I've previously written about parts of this and
will not repeat what most informed citizens know.<BR><BR>W.<BR><BR><BR>From: Jay
Borden <BR>Sent: Friday, November 04, 2011 10:03 AM<BR>To: Art Deco ; Vision
2020 <BR>Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Putting Millionaires Before
Jobs<BR><BR><BR>What is it that this $60B spending will do that the previous
"shovel ready stimulus packages"
didn't?<BR><BR> <BR><BR> <BR><BR>Jay<BR><BR> <BR><BR> <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------<BR><BR>November
3, 2011<BR><BR>Putting Millionaires Before Jobs<BR>There's nothing partisan
about a road or a bridge or an airport; Democrats and Republicans have voted to
spend billions on them for decades and long supported rebuilding plans in their
own states. On Thursday, though, when President Obama's plan to spend $60
billion on infrastructure repairs came up for a vote in the Senate, not a single
Republican agreed to break the party's filibuster. <BR><BR>That's because the
bill would pay for itself with a 0.7 percent surtax on people making more than
$1 million. That would affect about 345,000 taxpayers, according to Citizens for
Tax Justice, adding an average of $13,457 to their annual tax bills. Protecting
that elite group - and hewing to their rigid antitax vows - was more important
to Senate Republicans than the thousands of construction jobs the bill would
have helped create, or the millions of people who would have used the rebuilt
roads, bridges and airports. <BR><BR>Senate Republicans filibustered the
president's full jobs act last month for the same reasons. And they have vowed
to block the individual pieces of that bill that Democrats are now bringing to
the floor. Senate Democrats have also accused them of opposing any good idea
that might put people back to work and rev the economy a bit before next year's
presidential election. <BR><BR>There is no question that the infrastructure bill
would be good for the flagging economy - and good for the country's future
development. It would directly spend $50 billion on roads, bridges, airports and
mass transit systems, and it would then provide another $10 billion to an
infrastructure bank to encourage private-sector investment in big public works
projects. <BR><BR>Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican of Texas,
co-sponsored an infrastructure-bank bill in March, and other Republicans have
supported similar efforts over the years. But the Republicans' determination to
stick to an antitax pledge clearly trumps even their own good ideas. <BR><BR>A
competing Republican bill, which also failed on Thursday, was cobbled together
in an attempt to make it appear as if the party has equally valid ideas on job
creation and rebuilding. It would have extended the existing highway and public
transportation financing for two years, paying for it with a $40 billion cut to
other domestic programs. Republican senators also threw in a provision that
would block the Environmental Protection Agency from issuing new clean air
rules. Only in the fevered dreams of corporate polluters could that help create
jobs. <BR><BR>Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, bitterly accused
Democrats of designing their infrastructure bill to fail by paying for it with a
millionaire's tax, as if his party's intransigence was so indomitable that
daring to challenge it is somehow underhanded. <BR><BR>The only good news is
that the Democrats aren't going to stop. There are many more jobs bills to come,
including extension of unemployment insurance and the payroll-tax cut. If
Republicans are so proud of blocking all progress, they will have to keep doing
it over and over again, testing the patience of American voters.
<BR><BR> <BR><BR>___________________________<BR><BR>Wayne A. Fox<BR><A
href="mailto:wayne.a.fox@gmail.com">wayne.a.fox@gmail.com</A><BR></BODY></HTML>