No doubt that will be true of some of the state government jobs that are saved. But to contend that all state government jobs which currently exist are needed is nonsense. If there is a state which does not have a horde of (overpaid) jobs on state boards and commissions which are totally unnecessary, I have yet to encounter it.

The infrastructure spending will help keep the economy growing in the long term, but it would also be helpful if Congress could find a way to encourage businesses to invest in infrastructure as well. Possibly they could do this by making sure there are fewer unnecessary regulations that dissuade businesses from making those investments. There seem to be many businesses that have money to invest, but not as many that are actively investing in any forward-thinking enterprise. Hopefully Congress can find ways to get that money flowing.

The tax cuts on businesses would certainly be helpful, especially on small businesses or businesses in sectors where there is potential for significant job creation. We need the businesses like that to be able to resume their traditional role as the engine of our economy. The government can certainly assist the process getting started, but businesses will actually provide the growth.

I think the aid to the state governments is also needed, because the programs that the state governments support are needed for sustained growth. For instance, the state governments support schools and public workforce training programs. It is important to make sure both of those programs survive to make sure we are able to provide workers for whichever sectors of the economy are providing the jobs.

I recently saw that the Friends of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is working with Congress to make sure that they take these things into account when they are designing the stimulus package. They have a petition that I encourage everyone to sign to make sure Congress knows that we want the economy fixed – but we want it fixed for the long-term – http://www.friendsoftheuschamber.com/takeaction/index.cfm?ID=76

Your are correct that government should get involve but we have to very careful in wasteful spending other wise critics Republicans and conservative will begin critizing him as a big spending liberal. Something that they always do to Democratic President. If jobs are created from the private sector it will be difficult for the Republican to make gains in the 2010 and 2012 election.

What about adequate regulation of the financial sector? The financial instruments and organizations that have gotten away with no oversight at all must be regulated and current staffs just aren’t large enough. Don’t contract these things out! We’d just wind up needing overseers for the overseers. As it is any additional funds released from TARP need a heck of a lot more supervision than what we’ve seen so far. That will keep a lot of people busy.

In addition we are in desperate need of a drastic expansion of the NIH and other public health agencies.

How many other things have I missed after years of people believing blindly that the private sector could take care of almost everything?