Hank Kalet

Stimulus should build for the future

As Barack Obama said during his speech yesterday, government spending has to work or the money shouldn’t be spent. And while we need a massive economic stimulus both to prevent economic freefall and to begin the hardwork of rebuilding our economy, we shouldn’t assume that all spending is good spending.

That’s why some in the environmental community are ready to do battle over plans currently being crafted.

According to The Washington Independent,

a growing chorus of environmental groups says it falls short of those goals, providing too much funding for new roads and too little for public transportation and other green initiatives.

Under the current proposal, new construction could consume three times as much funding as public transportation. The environmental groups hope more public transit money will be added when lawmakers make changes to the proposal in committee, an amendment process which began Wednesday afternoon.

“At a time of erratic energy prices, Congress should use this opportunity to move
America away from highways and toward railways and mass transit,” said Karen Wayland, legislative director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. “The transportation component of the stimulus package underfunds mass transit in deference to highways and bridges.”

They say there is

plenty of room to improve the Democrats’ blueprint. At the forefront of their criticism, the proposal includes $30 billion for highway construction but dedicates only $10 billion to public transit and rail — a discrepancy prioritizing new roads at the expense of public transportation.

Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth, says the spending on new roads will only act to increase pollution and fuel consumption — two problems the Democrats’ proposal was designed to alleviate.

“It is particularly disappointing to see that, unlike highway funds, public transportation and passenger rail funds have been cut below the levels suggested by the House Transportation Committee, limiting job creation in these areas,” Blackwelder said in a statement. “Public transportation investments create 19 percent more jobs per dollar spent than investments in new highways.”

Daniel Becker, head of the Safe Climate Campaign, said the proposal is a significant step in the direction of cutting pollution and increasing energy efficiency, but there are notable holes that could use plugging. “There’s a lot of new asphalt-laying [in the bill],” Becker said, “and that will undercut a lot of the green efforts.”

Marchant Wentworth, legislative representative for clean energy with the Union of Concerned Scientists, agreed that the $10 billion for public transit is insufficient to accomplish the Democrats’ goals. “You could triple that and still have needs out there for relieving congestion,” he said.

I’m not saying that a good chunk of the road money is not needed — some of it definitely is. But road money would be best spent on repairs and upgrades to existing infrastructure, rather than carving out new thoroughfares that will just lead to sprawl and more congestion down the road. If some of the money were shifted from asphalt to mass transit, that would go a long way toward greening the stimulus.

And if the tax cuts were to be scrapped, that money could then go toward other green projects — or “to provide further relief to Americans in distress — enhanced unemployment benefits, expanded Medicaid and more.”

A shrinking pie

Conservatives used to talk of expanding the economic pie as a way to ensure that the lower classes got what they needed, rather than redistributing some money down the income ladder. It was an approach that, though it might have sounded good on paper, just never worked.

The failure, unfortunately, is made worse by reports like this:

New Jersey’s unemployment rate climbed to its highest level in 15 years last month, triggering worries that the drain on the state’s unemployment insurance fund will prompt payroll tax increases.

The 7.1 percent unemployment rate was a full point increase over the rate in November, and just barely under the national average of 7.2 percent, Gov. Jon Corzine and State Labor Commissioner David Socolow announced today.

Basically, the pie is shrinking and the people on the bottom are finding that a smaller portion of nothing is still nothing.

Another reason to turn off the radio

For lovers of slightly edgy rock ‘n’ roll, the news that alternative station 106.3, G-Rock, in Eatontown is changing its format hits a sour note.

In an effort to appeal to a mainstream audience, Press Communications LLC has switched the format of a local alternative rock radio station to current hits radio.

“What our research showed us was that we needed to have a more mass appeal format that reached all ages between 18 to 44,” said Alice MacCormack, general sales manager for station owner Press Communications LLC. The radio station is broadcast as WHTG-FM 106.3 in Eatontown and WBBO-FM 106.5 in Bass River Township.

Once called G Rock Radio, the station is now known as Hit 106. The change was made at noon Monday, MacCormack said.

The new format, according to The Asbury Park Press, “includes music from recording artists such as Rhianna, Pink, Beyonce, Taylor Swift and David Cook.”

This from a station — formerly dubbed “Jersey’s Rock Alternative” — that

was known for breaking in top alternative bands, such as The Ting Tings and The Duke Spirit.

Of course, the blogger says sarcastically, you just can’t have too many stations playing songs by the winners of American Idol.

Runner’s diary, Wednesday

I was hoping that a run would clear my head and kill this sinus headache, but I'm still suffering. I hate to take anything — a huge change from my misspent youth. I'm think I have no choice.

That said, I put in a slow three while listening to a mix and then did some crunches. It's time toget serious.

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Sent from my Verizon Wireless LGVX9900 device.

Obama song

The coverage of some of the peripherals surrounding the inaugural the last few days was, to say the least, the kind of solipsistic nonsense that gives celebrity its bad name.

There on Oprah were Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher, intellectual lightweights, talking about themselves as if this historic moment offered insight into their holiness.

And there were others — both on the celebrity shows (Oprah, GMA) and the news programs.

It was enought o turn me sour to the whole thing.

And then I catch Beyonce on GMA this morning before leaving for the gym. She was truly proud and grateful to play the smallest role in the Obamas' moment and the nation's history that I can put the pretentious nonsense aside and focus on what yesterday really says about us and where we as a nation are headed.

It reminded me, as someone wrote on Facebook, that America needed a celebratory day like yesterday.

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Sent from my Verizon Wireless LGVX9900 device.