Running a deficit in a recession (which may become a depression) is normal, and is pretty much unavoidable. And in many ways the government is the only one who can step in and pick up the slack from the private sector, which is hiding under the covers and balling its eyes out right now. We lost 68,000 jobs today. That is more than we lose in a month sometime.

Running huge deficits during good economic times is unacceptable. Even Clinton, one of your "tax and spend" liberals was able to run a surplus. 2007 was a great year financially, but Bush was setting record deficits.

Akuma, correct me if I'm wrong, but under Clinton, the deficit rose by $2.0 trillion USD between 1991 and 1999. How was that a surplus?

I'm not saying that running a deficit during a recession is wrong.

I'm saying running a stupid deficit during a recession is wrong.

Don't pay people to dig holes and then refill then with dirt like they used to do in the USSR....

actually pay people to do stuff that will benefit people AND make back the money in the long term.

Make it stuff that matters and is going to work and be usefull.

I agree 100%.

There are only 2 ways you can grow an economy in the global marketplace:

1) Invent something

2) Manufacture something

America does neither. Our manufacturing base is almost nil due to shipping jobs to countries that have the ability to produce goods at a cheaper price. This will (obviously) happen as long as there's an understandable reason for it. We will not find a solution to that problem unless we make American business more competitive (and that'll never happen unless we reduce barriers that the Govt. has such as incredibly high corporate tax rates that scare away new ventures in the states).

Service jobs, such as new Internet infrastructure will do NOTHING for the economy. Eventually, the IT centers will be shipped overseas to India, and we will have gained nothing from it. If money is to be invested, it needs to be invested in new ventures that other countries can't establish them in. China does our manufacturing because they don't have the infrastructure to do more advanced things. India does our IT because they do. Mexico does our labor when we can't find someone in the states to do it, Mid-East makes our energy, and Europe trades various high-end goods with us.

If Obama wants to create real, lasting jobs, he needs to focus on industries that are beyond the reach of other countries. I believe that industry is space travel, and technology. America is one of the few countries with the capacity to do that - we have the space (pun intended), infrasctructure, technology and funding to do it, yet we're still stuck in the 1970's with our mentality. Eventually, other more intelligent countries will supplant America in the space race (and in some ways, Russia has done this with affordable technology).

Obama needs to take what Bush started - the colonization of the moon by 2016/2020 and make it a profitable venture. Make America the world's spaceport. You could create millions of high-paying, long-lasting manufacturing and service jobs, because few countries have the ability to have both a large amount of space for spaceports, as well as the scientists and infrastructure to do such a thing. I am sure there are many other ventures that could be done such as that, but I think space would be the best example, since it's not exploited, and there's plenty of profit potential out there (energy production, resources, R&D, ect). Heck, America was discovered under the same principles and exploited for those reasons - why not foster the same kind of ideal to the next level?

Cell towers still require the same "expensive cables" at every part except the "last mile" connection.

You got 4400 posts with 56k dial-up? You patient man...

Well no matter how you look at it the more important part of the bill that affects us is Net Neutrality. That's one thing we should all be praying passes with the new bill.

Did you miss the boat to the post-industrial economy?  Our economy has shifted away from manufacturing a long time ago.  You are looking at things from the perspective of the 1940's or 1950's.

I don't know how broadly you are defining invent, but you really are missing out on a lot.  Creating something is huge in our market and makes us a strong player in the global economy.  California, for interest, produces about 1/5th or 1/6 of our total GDP.  Guess what they by and large produce, culture!  American culture is one of our largest exports.

Our economy is now a sevice based economy.  We have law firms that represent people across the world, because the services we offer are so much better than anyone else's.  Its the same thing with our financial firms (well, maybe not anymore), our corporate conglomerates, and all kinds of other businesses you can imagine.  You think Chili's is rolling in the dough because they "invented" or "manufactured" something?  No, they found a market that they could capitalize on and they filled that niche.  America's economy runs on services.  Every year it runs less and less on manufacturing.

Why do you think the financial sector getting hit so hard had such a domino effect?  Its because our financial institutions are so deeply rooted across the globe.  What you are talking about is not how you become a major player in the global economy once you are already a major player in the global economy.  We have long passed our industrial phase, and don't expect us to go back now.

@ stickball. I would have to double check the numbers on this, but I've seen similar charts elsewhere. You can see the history of the national debt. Check it out. The reason Akuma is praising Clinton, is because he had it close to 'stable' when the last several presidents have been on a j curve (hyperbole). Although, to be fair to the other presidents, there was a shit load of revenue during the 90's.

http://www.cedarcomm.com/~stevelm1/usdebt.htm

Annual budget surplus... for three years or so...not enough to pay down the debt. Or so I'm told.