Who have thought it?

Larry Summers spent two years as part of the Obama administration, but it seems like he has come to his senses. In a piece on the Daily Beast today, Summers advocates that the federal government set forth a ten year plan for capital expenditures that will result in the construction of a coherent and sensible new infrastructure backbone for the nation. According to Summers, the one year "quick fixes" that Obama is proposing for infrastructure just won't work. In Summers view, infrastructure improvement is a long term need for the country's economy to function, not a methodology to put a few extra folks back to work in the short term.

This is exactly correct. Infrastructure improvement and maintainance is part of the constitutional mission of the federal government. It is Congress that makes laws governing interstate commerce, not the individual states. Congress, as well, ought to determine the nature of the infrastructure improvement that will tie the country together and assist in the growth of the national economy. That infrastructure has to be thought out and not just dashed off. It has to make economic sense; in other words, we need improvements like roads that will be used rather than white elephants like high speed rail systems that will just cost a fortune while providing little benefit.

The funny thing that Summers does not mention is that long term infrastructure plans were the norm in prior administrations. Probably the best known plans were Roosevelt's Tennessee Valley Authority and Eisenhower's interstate highway system. Nevertheless, every president in the last 80 years had a long term infrastructure program except for one: Barack Obama. In short, a long term infrastructure program is too important to the economic health of the country to ignore.