Shovel-Ready Again: I’ll Say!

Remember when Obama became president and touted what he called “shovel-ready projects” to revamp infrastructure? And he wanted several billions of dollars for it? Remember how the Republicans came unglued about the spending? Okay, so what gives here? Trump has just asked for one trillion dollars and is now asking state officials around the nation to present him with the list of public works projects to spend it on. Say what?! Man, ponying up the ducats and THEN telling the government to tell us what the money should be spent on is a good way to ensure graft, bogus purchase orders/embezzlement, and waste. The process Trump present is bass ackwards. You present the projects, iron out a budget, then you allocate the funds. Not hand Imelda Marcos a credit card and then point her to the shoe store.

But the point is, this is hypocrisy. The Republicans applaud Trump for doing what they scolded Obama for proposing? Oh, right, let me guess: “We were against shovel-ready projects before we were for them…” John Kerry’s famous quote rings true once again. Wow! We’re getting the Republican version of Obamacare and now we’ll get the Obama shovel-ready projects, too! Swell! We can look forward to the public works version of Obamacare, basically. “If you like your airport, you can keep it…”

A trillion dollars in search of a home. Splendid. I have a better idea for the money. How about returning it to its rightful owners? You know, the American people? That’s where the money came from. Oh, wait, not really. It was actually borrowed from some other country, probably China. The taxes we pay only pay the interest on those loans. Let’s not forget the hundreds of billions of dollars they’re handing to the Pentagon. This is all shovel-ready. It’s shoveling a bunch of bovine excrement. When the shovel is not digging us all into a hole.

Again, why is this spendaholic getting a free pass here? What, because he’s some “outsider”? Ha! I say again, HA! This is the same spending pattern of every president since Reagan. And, my word, Trump dusted off old Obama ideas on top of that! Where do you think this infrastructure spending idea came from? Look it up, people! It was Obama’s idea first, over 8 years ago! And Republicans sit there and act like this is something new. “Gee, what a good idea, Mr. President!” Smooch! Right, like you jokers weren’t pounding your shoes on the podium eight years ago over Obama’s spending. Remember, that’s why the Tea Party came into being. The name was “Taxed Enough Already” and the initials were “T.E.A.”, of course. The Tea Party. Because they were worried all this spending by Obama would increase taxes to pay for it. Now, if they thought that then, how is Trump going to pay for the SAME Obama spending ideas AND cut taxes? He can’t. Reagan learned that back in the day when he tried coupling massive defense spending with tax cuts. Social Security almost went belly up.

So don’t hand me this Obama re-tread and tell me it’s raining prosperity.

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