http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/us/politics/25cnd-transition.html?_r=1&hp

That ties my point of need for conservative principles in spending (and his apparent agreement with conservative principles in spending) even further. Iam arguing that Obama needs to stick to his guns on this… Not from an ideological point, but from a (That is our “true north” so to speak…one of his ultimate goals in spending this money..”Don’t veer to far off course”.) “Too much” will be determined by the people and the history books…He should choose his words carefully (and I have to say he has shown that he does), because if in a few years we look back on this statement, it will be a broken promise.

Bottom line: Paulson is a disaster, but the underlying ideas are the best available.

Like with energy, DO BOTH. Ideological purism is the enemy of pragmatism, especially in a crisis. And if ever a situation called for throwing everything including the kitchen sink at a problem, the current financial crisis does. Even graft and pork have positive side effects, given the current situation.

P.S. In economic and foreign policy terms, President Bush is properly described in a non-pejorative way as a liberal. I say “non-pejorative” because this description does not rely on ideological differences, but only upon an assessment of the intellectual history of the assumptions he uses. For example, “neoconservatism” in foreign policy is a term without meaning. The proper name for the idea that spreading democracy would create peace is “Wilsonian liberalism”.

JayC- Isn’t it amazing that those commonsense steps you list should even be up for debate, and that experience shows that they probably won’t be taken? I just hope that Americans are paying attention and that the politicians take the oversight seriously, as our very future really does depend on using ’stimulus’ money wisely. There’s just no room for graft, bureaucratic inefficiency, and vote buying pork in our current situation. Even a small percentage of the huge sums being allocated would amount to massive waste that we just can’t afford.

I’d add that in this recessionary period, “real conservative” (not Bush era) ideas are needed more than ever. Given that President-elect Barack Obama affirmed his commitment to an economic recovery plan that will mean 2.5 million more jobs by January of 2011, and that this spending will line items in OUR 700 billion package price tag. Every new spending proposal should be rooted in real cost-benefit analysis, not justified solely as anti-recessionary spending. If Americans are being asked to spend tens of billions of dollars building schools, then we need evidence on why incentive pay for teachers will do more for our children than equivalent spending on school structures. If Americans are being asked to spend billions on roads, then we need to know how much traveler time will be saved by pouring all that new asphalt. What assumptions are needed for those wind farms and solar panels to cover their costs? Will the bidding on jobs be open, and are the contracts going to go to the lowest bidder and not to someone’s buddy?

Increasing public employment is not a panacea for these tough economic times. “Make-work” jobs waste human time. Every worker put on a public salary is one less person who could be innovating in the private sector. Increasing public employment now may make sense, but those new public workers need to be producing something worthy of their time. Perhaps the right way to proceed is for Congress to pass conditional spending targets, indicating the size of available funds in different areas, like energy, education and transportation. After that, the relevant departments would need to come up with a list of projects, backed up by detailed estimates of costs and benefits, which would give taxpaying voters some assurance that their money is being well-targeted. Funds can then be re-allocated to departments that have produced plans with more value per dollar and away from departments that offers expensive boondoggles. All these steps should be transparent to the taxpayer (I assume they will be, since Obama promised more transparency in government…Hopefully he can live up to his promise there)… However, I get the sneaking suspicion that if these steps aren’t taken, and the American people cry foul, the powers that be will simply state that Americans are “awash in cynicism”.