A New Play?

Obama emerged from the huddle; play (jobs program) has been called. He goes under center, reads the defense (the Republicans-some fellow Democrats-all the current jobs and economic reports), backs out, calls an audible, and now goes back under center. The ball will be snapped at 7:00 pm on Thursday night and we will see the plan QB Obama wants to run.

Many believe he has nothing left and he has called a hail Mary. Others believe he will call the same old play. The sidelines and the players on the team were behind the original plan and were bragging on it. They claimed this plan was the cure and would score the big TD (new Jobs). But now they are backing off and saying we may not see or hear the new play book. QB may save some for another day, to say he has more plays he could use. But someone needs to inform the QB, the time is now for him, there may not be a tomorrow.

We are at the 2:00 minute warning. The season is in jeopardy and the QB job is on the line. QB Obama is now in the hurry up offense. The game had gotten away from him. The game plan so far has been a failure. Nothing has worked. But he is in a position to pull the game, and the season out of defeat.

There are those that think the game is over. Let me remind you of the 1969 Mets, or the 1969 Jets. How about when QB Truman came from behind a 32% QB rating and was brought back for another season.

If QB Obama wants another season at QB, he has to make changes to the play book. He needs to remove the plays that do not work and try new plays. Some plays may just need a minor adjustment. Perhaps a day looking at game films will reveal to him a better game plan. See what former plays worked and add them to the game book. See what has not worked currently as well as in past seasons and eliminate them.

QB Obama’s major obstacle is to not lose any more and to add to roster positions (Jobs). QB Obama has already made a good step by eliminating the end run (not implementing the new round of EPA regulations finally agreeing that they would have eliminated jobs). But what could he be calling? What changes to the play book should be made?

We know he will once more go to the bomb (the stimulus program). Now while the past ones have been a failure, with a few adjustments, perhaps this one could succeed. No one can deny we need major infrastructure work. Our roads and bridges are not getting any younger. The I-35W Mississippi River bridge, Mianus River Bridge, Schoharie Creek Bridge collapse, the I-5 Bridge, are all evidence that our bridges need maintenance and major repairs. We all know that the infrastructure section of the stimulus only address a small part of what needs to be done and the jobs created are only for a short term, the length of the funded project. What needs to change is there needs to be an adjustment to keep the maintenance program going so as to not let our infrastructure get in this condition again. This approach would create full time permanent jobs. The current stimulus package, about 18 billion was spent on infrastructure. This money was spent over 2 ½ years. So why not make a $10 billion dollar commitment to infrastructure repair per year? The advantages are permanent job creation as well as better maintenance to our infrastructure. Ok I hear you all now, AV saying spend money. I am not against wise spending. A permanent program that creates permanent jobs as well as making our roads and bridges better, is money wisely and well spent. What I am against is unwise spending that gets no results. We all know the last stimulus was not wise spending.If we make cuts in the current budget by getting rid of unwise spending, we will have more than enough money to cover this type of ongoing project.

Instead of so many long passes like giving grants and other wasted projects, let’s add a bunch of short passes. There were way too many projects that while needed on local levels, were nothing more than a waste of money as far as job creations are concerned. Instead of grants, why not take those stimulus funds and make them no interest loans. Too many grants were wasted on projects that did not create jobs at all. For example, a roofing company was awarded a contract to put a roof on a local municipality. The municipality of course did not use local revenues, they received a stimulus grant. The award dollar amount was $54,000. The company came in, completed the job in 2 weeks using the employees they already had. The Company did not hire anyone new, therefore this project created zero jobs. The current stimulus is loaded with projects like these. So let’s go short passes. That would be instead of long passes (grants) how about all monies are no interest loans. The monies lent out would come back to the government and then could be re-used on more projects. So instead of doing say 100 projects like the roofing project, we could do an unlimited amount of projects as there would be continued funding. It would be a self sufficient program. Small businesses can get no interest loans for projects they are sitting on. That would create jobs, people to work on these new projects. That too is a wise way to spend the stimulus money.

No stimulus money is spent on a company bailouts. If they cannot get their own house in order, then they need to go away. There are many good successful companies that can step up and take their place.

No stimulus Grants or funds given to states unless they get their own fiscal house in order. There was about $210 billion spent on this. The federal stimulus is American taxpayers from all states. While we need the stimulus money to create jobs, a few states like Texas used stimulus money to plug budget shortfalls. Those states did not create one job trying to balance their budgets. This should not be allowed to happen again.

The Federal government is guilty of that as well. Spending $50 billion of the stimulus on setting up Obamacare; a program that was suppose to not need help setting up and would “not cost taxpayers one thin dime”. Well just in this package alone $ 50 Billion dollars worth of dimes were spent at the taxpayer’s expense. While this is only one program, there were numerous others.

What is needed is a good, well planned out game plan. One that has fresh ideas, or ideas that have worked before in past games. There needs to be game day adjustments for those plans that are not working. Or the team is doomed to remain a failure, and no one wants that.

The job of a good QB is to make adjustments, too lead, to not make excuses, to accept responsibility. To read the defense (government reports) and see what is working and what is not, to toss the game plan when needed. For the ones that cannot lead are generally benched or released. Just ask former QB Carter.

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