Obama lays out bold recovery plan in weekly address

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Saturday December 06, 2008 · 6:02 AM PST

2008/12/06 · 06:02

Obama lays out his economic plan for both "Wall Street and Main Street," which is intended to create 2.5 million jobs by rebuilding "infrastructure...improving schools, reducing our dependence on oil and saving billions of dollars."

The metrics for progress Obama cites include the reforms implemented, as well as a standard common in my corporate-tool life but conspicuously absent from government the past seven years—results. This encompasses easily measurable categories such as jobs created, energy saved and America's competitiveness globally.

Key details of his plan include:

"Massive" effort to make public buildings more energy efficient. These efforts include (but are not limited to) "replacing old heating systems and installing efficient light bulbs." In addition to cost savings, this will create jobs.

Job creation (according to Obama, in the millions) by making "the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highways system in the 1950s." Obama plans to apply "a use it or lose it" rule to the allocation of this money.

"The most sweeping effort to modernize and upgrade school buildings that this country has ever seen." This includes repairs, energy-efficient upgrades and technology investments. In essence, he wants to create "21st Century Schools," an idea novel to the current President's priorities.

He also wants to improve our "information superhighway" and references our abysmal ranking of 15th worldwide in broadband access. As Obama says, "here in the country that invented the internet, every child should have the chance to get online." In addition to connecting schools to the internet, he proposes connecting hospitals (as someone in the medical device industry, I say genius idea). And he talks about modernizing our hospitals with improved technology (another winner).

I realize this won’t satisfy the Barney Franks of the world (the ones who think Obama should have already moved into the White House by now), but I look forward to its implementation about as much as I look forward to watching Bush move out his sh*t.

Update: As jalenth notes in the comments, this is only part of his economic plan, which will be rolled out in its entirety in the weeks to come.

For more bold change, see A Siegel's diary

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