Busting a myth about Obama's infrastructure programs
One critique you鈥檙e beginning to hear about the infrastructure ideas in the President鈥檚 jobs proposal is that the Recovery Act鈥檚 infrastructure programs were some kind of bust, of never got started, or whatever.
Demonstrably untrue. There鈥檚 no question that they did not get up-and-running as quickly as other parts of the program, but here鈥檚 a graph of the cumulative spendout on public investment (which includes infrastructure along with other investments like clean energy and health IT).
I鈥檓 sure you鈥檒l hear claims to the contrary in coming days as we debate the infrastructure initiatives in the American Jobs Act, but the fact is that these projects were solidly in the economy by last summer. The problem is we needed more of them this summer, and we鈥檒l need more next summer as well.
