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Comments

• [1] The Truth from Atlanta/New York January 27, 2009 - 10:10AM

  Funny how everyone is "alert" and "paying attention" to how money is being spent now. Why no interest in the past 8 years? Why no "shovel in the ground" interest back then? Things that make you go hmmmm...

  
  
• [2] Joe Corrao from Brooklyn January 27, 2009 - 10:10AM

  not trillion...trillions

  http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/27/news/bigger.bailout.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009012704

  this is money we don't have that we have spending...i suggest people have more kids so that our children's children will have an easier time paying off the tab.

  
  
• [3] Joe Corrao from Brooklyn January 27, 2009 - 10:11AM

  Shovel ready is right...but its not shovelling projects is shovelling BS...a blue chip industry.

  
  
• [4] Peter Knutson from Crown heights January 27, 2009 - 10:13AM

  How fair is it to compare per-capita spending with a state such as Wyoming? All capital improvement projects cost some amount of capital. If a state like Wyoming, population under 500,000 is the leader, doesn't that point in part to the data being skewed by a population so small?

  Is there a greater trend in the data?

  
  
• [5] Leonardo Andres January 27, 2009 - 10:13AM

  so i would like to see how the hardcore obama fans twist this one and blame it on bush somehow.

  
  
• [6] hjs from 11211 January 27, 2009 - 10:14AM

  funny how now the GOP cares about deficits didn't Cheney say deficits don't matter?

  
  
• [7] The Truth from Atlanta/New York January 27, 2009 - 10:15AM

  It will take exactly a trillion dollars to pull this country out of the trillion dollar deficit this administration inherited.

  
  
• [8] Lance from Manhattan January 27, 2009 - 10:16AM

  What about maintenance of EXISTING bridges?

  There was a lot of talk about problems with our bridges after the Minneapolis bridge collapse. Isn't anyone talking about funding projects to shore up our bridges?

  
  
• [9] RJ from brooklyn January 27, 2009 - 10:21AM

  One thought about the seemingly "non-shovel-ready" projects: when putting money into Medicaid and other social service-seeming projects. Not only does this save the jobs and institututions of health care, but the people *receiving* it are therefore more capable of fulfilling any job whatsoever. It also gives the workers in those social service industries income to spend--locally--to sustain neighborhoods.

  And, I guess Paul Krugman will be disappointed in his hopes about Larry Summer's changes of heart!

  
  
• [10] hjs from 11211 January 27, 2009 - 10:24AM

  on the map i see a large amount of spending called "per capita infrastructure" in states like ND SD wyoming and montana.

  why ? shouldn't we abandon that wasteland to tall grasses and bison. is supporting the further sprawl an efficient use of my money?

  
  
• [11] RJ from brooklyn January 27, 2009 - 10:26AM

  People keep talking about the need (and time required) to "contract" out the work--the time for bidding, etc. Do cities seriously no longer *employ* any people with those skills? Can we really not *hire* those people and directly oversee those projects (since it's been hard enough to oversee outside contractors, i.e., massive cost overruns in nearly every major project--see the MTA building in lower Manhattan)?

  
  
• [12] ceolaf from brooklyn January 27, 2009 - 10:28AM

  Brian,

  It's not an infrastructure bill. It is not a transportation bill. It is a stimulus bill.

  Where possible, the administrations wants it to go to infrastructure and transportation. But not at the expense of timely stimulus.

  A better issue to harp on would be that NYC is getting less than 10% of the transportation money that is coming to the state. Sure, we don't have all the roads or the miles driven, but we a mass transit system in critical need of maintenance AND new infrastructure.

  
  
• [13] Nick from NYC January 27, 2009 - 10:30AM

  All this talk of how a tax cut will put money in people's pockets, which they will then theoretically spend.... when will these people understand that everyone is just going to use it to pay off debts - that's the real underlying problem, people don't just have NO money to spend, they have NEGATIVE money to spend...less than zero...

  
  
• [14] hjs from 11211 January 27, 2009 - 10:32AM

  1 billion for the census? shouldn't that have been in the budget somewhere else?

  
  
• [15] Alvin from Manhattan January 27, 2009 - 10:33AM

  Most of the money seems to be destined for union jobs. NYC may lose well over 100,000 white-collar non-union jobs in its main industries: financial, publishing, advertising. What about those workers? Do the Democrats care about non-union jobs? It's been said that each job on Wall Street supports two other jobs. How many jobs does one ditch digger support?

  
  
• [16] hjs from 11211 January 27, 2009 - 10:36AM

  alvin,

  have you heard about the financial bailout bill that was passed a few months ago?

  
  
• [17] barry from Manhattan January 27, 2009 - 10:38AM

  Low Oil Prices are pumping a billion extra dollars per day into the economy, there is your immediate stimulus.

  
  
• [18] Peter Knutson from Crown heights January 27, 2009 - 11:25AM

  In response to #10 HJS,

  As a New Yorker, I'm constantly stunned by the provincial, short sighted or downright ignorant stands that some New Yorkers take towards most of the rest of our nation.

  Rural America is not the domain of sprawl, our urban areas are. And the New York metropolitan area has less density than the great sprawl-devil Los Angeles, so let's tend our own garden on that front.

  And as for the per-capita spending arguments (both in terms of anti-terrorism and infrastructure arguments). The fact that North Dakota and Montana have huge international borders has nothing to do with population density. It costs dollars per mile to protect a border, not dollars per-capita.

  
  
• [19] hjs from 11211 January 27, 2009 - 11:41AM

  peter

  "New York metropolitan area has less density than the great sprawl-devil Los Angeles,"

  i'd like to hear more about that

  as for your other point living in North Dakota etc is unsustainable as a nyer i see no reason to send more of my tax dollars to the great plains, for what to support the cattle or corn syrup industry. as for the border if canada invades i'll be the first to defend my nation.

  
  
• [20] Peter Knutson from Crown heights January 27, 2009 - 12:05PM

  HJS,

  I'll try and track down the source for the comment I, sort of glibly I'm afraid, tossed out there. (I did, and it's here... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/10/AR2005081002110.html ) But like everything, if you read some other online critiques of these data the picture isn't as clear as I made it sound.

  As for the sustainability of living in the Prairie. I think taking any one American location in isolation is absolutely the wrong way to look at the issue. North Dakota has some of the most productive wheat farms in the nation. This intensive and localized agriculture, in it's own way, makes living in New York possible: in the same way the existence of New York makes such high density farming possible. We are all connected. In a way that's why someone from Bismark should be interested in the 2nd Ave. subway, and someone from Washington Heights should be interested in agricultural America.

  I don't believe in siphoning money from one area to another irresponsibly. But we're to interconnected to sit on the Nation's periphery (geographically) and imagine that what's going on in the interior is insignificant.

  Thanks for this discussion...

  Peter

  
  
• [21] hjs from 11211 January 27, 2009 - 12:46PM

  peter

  thanks for the interesting article. for the record I'm opposed to sprawl in NJ, LI and CT also (so we agree there)

  on your other point there is science that says cheap beef and corn product is not the best thing for my health. I rather eat local hudson valley fruits vegetables and free range chickens.

  if people want to live on the plains ( or south also) with their cows fine with me but why do I have to send them welfare checks and other subsidizes?

  http://www.taxfoundation.org/UserFiles/Image/Blog/ftsbs-large.jpg

  we are one nation and i invite them to join the modern world.

  
  
• [22] David from Stuyvesant Town January 28, 2009 - 01:41AM

  Weiner cites the Iraq War as an example of spending that's not smart.

  Well then why did you vote to authorize it?

  He says he was misled by President Bush.

  I'm sorry, if you were truly misled by the dumbest sounding President in history--or if you just claim you were, you're not worthy to represent New York in Congress or be New York City's Mayor.