One thing that I think is becoming clear as the stimulus package goes through the sausage making process that is legislation passage on Capital Hill is that it might lack that rallying point that the New Deal seemed to have. Say what you will about what really did or didn't pull the US out of the turmoil of the Great Depression, Roosevelt's attempt at economic stimulus had a number of public works programs that people could look at and feel like they were seeing actual improvement. The Hoover Dam comes immediately to mind. The current stimulus package seems to lack any of the same huge public works projects that allow people to look forward as say, "Imagine what this will be like when it's finished" and look back in the near and distant future and saysay, "Damn! Look at waht we did.
I'm thinking something along the lines of a cross-national high-speed rail or massive development of green energy (not just a dabbling in it) across all regions of the US.
But one thing that comes to mind that seems to be both well overdue and more than a little politically expedient could be the construction of a cutting edge flood protection system for the city of New Orleans. I'm talking here about the kind of system they have in Holland that protects a large portion of a country that lies under sea level and would be wiped off the map were it not to exist.
There are at least three obvious reasons I think this would be a good idea. First, who can (legitimately) argue at this point that the US government doesn't owe the people of New Orleans and the surrounding areas a little payback at this point. In other words, it just seems impoosible to argue that it's not their turn in some way. Second, it's a perfect project for the type of thing I'm talking about. That is, it would be a public works project that everyone in the country could feel good about (see reason #1 above), would be something that could be used as a symbol of the progress of the economic recovery, and would provide and economically depressed area with thousands of needed jobs. Finally, it's a political winner in a state that has tended to vote Republican in presidential elections. Think about it: bringing billions of dollars and jobs into the state economy and showing the people of the state that you care about them enough to make them a hallmark of the recovery. Seems win win.
I'm sure there are reasons I'm not thinking of that make this a less than perfect idea. But I truly believe the best chance the stimulus has of passing is to include a few tangible projects in it that people can look at as progress as the stimulus starts to work. Building a state-of-the-art flood protection system around the New Orleans region seems like a perfect idea.