Q. What would another good name for that slice be?
A. Transportation.
WRONG! according to Kranish. He calls it "infrastructure," and proceeds to spin out a very deceptive article, "Only 5 percent of $819b plan would go toward infrastructure" (The Boston Globe, 1/28/09).
Michael Kranish’s article is very misleading, if not deceptive. The author only counts highway, mass transit, and rail projects as infrastructure. He ignores all housing and military construction, rural development works, water projects, and other elements of infrastructure. He goes so far as to specifically exclude electricity distribution systems from infrastructure, in his reference to "smart electricity grids."
I went through H.R.1 – The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan of 2009, line by line, and determined that about 25% of the money goes for infrastructure. That’s not a precise number. It could be about 10% less or it could be considerably more: I wasn’t able to precisely disaggregate the construction component of some programs from other program elements. Nevertheless, there’s no way it’s only 5%. My total came to $195,799,000,000, which is 24% of the total $819b. Here’s how it breaks down, showing the approximate amount allocated for infrastructure, by sector.
TITLE II—AGRICULTURE, NUTRITION AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT 13,391,000,000
TITLE V—ENERGY AND WATER 15,175,000,000
TITLE VI—FINANCIAL SERVICES AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT 7,300,000,000
TITLE VII—HOMELAND SECURITY 300,000,000
TITLE VIII—INTERIOR AND ENVIRONMENT 13,525,000,000
TITLE IX—LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION 80,654,000,000
TITLE X—MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AND VETERANS AFFAIRS 7,554,000,000
TITLE XII—TRANSPORTATION AND HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT 57,900,000,000
TOTAL $195,799,000,000
In addition to the direct investments in infrastructure, there are various types of loans as well as tax incentives in the plan, that would support infrastructure projects. The Boston Globe article is very misleading, to say the least.
Michael Kranish’s article is very misleading, if not deceptive. The author only counts highway, mass transit, and rail projects as infrastructure. He ignores all housing and military construction, rural development works, water projects, and other elements of infrastructure. He goes so far as to specifically exclude electricity distribution systems from infrastructure, in his reference to "smart electricity grids."
I went through H.R.1 – The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan of 2009, line by line, and determined that about 25% of the money goes for infrastructure. That’s not a precise number. It could be about 10% less or it could be considerably more: I wasn’t able to precisely disaggregate the construction component of some programs from other program elements. Nevertheless, there’s no way it’s only 5%. My total came to $195,799,000,000, which is 24% of the total $819b. Here’s how it breaks down, showing the approximate amount allocated for infrastructure, by sector.
TITLE II—AGRICULTURE, NUTRITION AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT 13,391,000,000
TITLE V—ENERGY AND WATER 15,175,000,000
TITLE VI—FINANCIAL SERVICES AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT 7,300,000,000
TITLE VII—HOMELAND SECURITY 300,000,000
TITLE VIII—INTERIOR AND ENVIRONMENT 13,525,000,000
TITLE IX—LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION 80,654,000,000
TITLE X—MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AND VETERANS AFFAIRS 7,554,000,000
TITLE XII—TRANSPORTATION AND HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT 57,900,000,000
TOTAL $195,799,000,000
In addition to the direct investments in infrastructure, there are various types of loans as well as tax incentives in the plan, that would support infrastructure projects. The Boston Globe article is very misleading, to say the least.
1 comment:
Welcome back!!
Post a Comment