The Green Deal

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Monday September 29, 2008 · 11:04 PM PDT

2008/09/29 · 23:04

Some politicians and pundits have appropriately brought up the spectre of the Great Depression in the past few days, but I haven't heard any of them continue that thought with the obvious: President Roosevelt did not respond to that Republican-hatched disaster by giving more money to rich people. Instead, he put money into the hands of American workers.

Today, Barak Obama has the opportunity to one-up FDR by proposing and pushing through legislation for The Green Deal, converting a trillion-dollar boondoggle for the rich and powerful into a trillion-dollar paycheck for American workers, who will pump our economy full of greenbacks and infuse the nation with clean, green energy. It's an idea that can rescue America's economy and America's families, not just bail out failed bankers who have every intention of turning around and screwing us again anyway.

What we need to start out with is a modern-day Tennessee Valley Authority, this time putting Americans to work installing billions of solar panels on rooftops everywhere. I'd say we should start with that bulbous dome atop the capital, but those bubbleheads might be too busy repealing off-shore drilling bans to notice.

We've heard again and again that the technology exists but that it's "not quite there" in a cost-effective way. Little did we know, however, that the people of the United States had an extra $700 billion at its disposal. That kind of money sure as hell makes it cost-effective now. Combined with tax breaks for green conversion and venture capital from the free-and-sensibly-regulated market, as well as a colossal pent-up demand for a green economy, this might be a rather snazzy thing.

Yeah, it won't happen overnight, but that's also the beauty of it. During those years of hard work converting America to green energy, Americans will be drawing paychecks, spending their hard-earned green and filling history books with another great Democratic solution to a Republican-created problem.

I'm just sayin'.

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