When unemployment stubbornly refuses to retreat what do you do? Well how about a Jobs Act singularly focused on creating jobs. Sounds like a plan. Well maybe so, in an an ideal world, but in the real world Obama's Jobs Act has two chances of getting through Congress - slim and none. Geez what's so bad with a Bill focused on getting people back to work that Congress would do nothing? Well maybe it's not the bill maybe it's the Tea Party Baggers lead by Bachmann and company. The right wing zealots would gladly derive the unemployment rate to 20% percent to prove a point. What point would that be? That we are both broke and stupid. It's just short sighted and stupid to not invest in jobs growth at a time like this.

Granted Obama's Jobs Act does include a good bit of spending but doesn't any investment involve spending? BTW - it's rather amusing that the Tea Party Baggers claim to be (on the surface) so concerned with runaway spending. Where were the Baggers when Bush ran up 5 trillion in debt, most of which, during his lame duck term? DId you hear a single right wing zealot whining and crying about the deficit then? Can't say I recall a peep out of them. Why? Maybe the were beneficiaries of the Bush's 5 trillion save the millionaires spending agenda? Now that the rest of the country is hurting and jobs are few and far between all of the sudden the deficit is a big deal. Hummh, smells like cronyism to me. The fact of the matter is that we got out of Great Depression in the 30s because of two words - "government spending." Say what you will, call it what you want but government has always been pivotal in shaping economic growth and direction in the US. So why shouldn't we invest to get people back to work? Simply put there is no credible reason to not invest in job growth. Of course that doesn't mean spend recklessly without a plan but like in any investment portfolio some bets pay some don't but at the end of the day if you make a decent return it was worth the effort. So although Obama's Job Act has little if any chance of passing Congress, it's not so much about the Bill but more about the politics. Too bad but you can blame the empty headed voters who put these looney tunes politicians into office. Maybe we should abolish voter rights too along with the Department of Education - that should make the Tea Party Baggers exceptionally happy.

Bridge work...what bridge work? You know the thousands of bridges, roads and highways across the US. So just how many jobs would be created through a massive multi-year projects to upgrade infrastructure? Well no one knows exactly but it wouldn't be hard to see one million or more jobs created from construction projects. Yes, at least one million if not more. So how much spending are we talking about to put a million people to work? Well, don't get mad at the messenger but numbers are floating around in the trillions of dollars - currently projected at 2 trillion dollars of spending on infrastructure projects.

Why in the world would anyone spend that kind of capital on bridges and roads that technically are still functioning? Well, for starters most of the current bridges and roads are now over 40 years old. Second, is it better to be proactive and spend now or wait to more bridges collapse like I-35 in Minnesota? The bottom line is that we pay now or pay later and like the credit card companies say, "it's cheaper to pay now versus later." In other words it typically costs a lot more to pay on the backend after a catastrophe has occurred. Geeez this is the US - where are the standards? Bridges collapse in China but not in the US - at least that was the standard of the past but it looks like the tide has changed. So would bridge work get the economy back on track? Well, putting one million people to work certainly qualifies as an economic lift. Moreover, if done correctly such an economic jolt would likely cause other economic sectors to get back on track too.