Word: plan
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Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, except that right now everyone wants a little piece of it. The mob has been chanting for months, ever since former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson arrived in late September on Capitol Hill to warn of disaster, pass around his three-page plan and demand $700 billion to fix the problem. Most members of Congress were so spooked they were ready to write a check, until their phone lines started melting with the angry voices of taxpayers demanding details about the likely return on the investment. But even the minimal strings attached did not prevent...
Congress, well-fed and self-satisfied, can catch its wind now. It has put together a $789 billion stimulus package to get the economy on the road again. The most interesting and obtuse comment about the new plan came from Senator Harry Reid, who said the legislation would create 3.5 million jobs...
Legalized gambling was set up in cities like Las Vegas so that the depravity of betting on cards and dice could be contained in one or two cities. The plan was not unlike Prohibition would have been if the only places to drink were Akron and Erie. Confining gambling turned out to be difficult once it became a staple on Indian reservations and on flat bottom boats anchored just beyond the jurisdiction of the local authorities in many river towns...
Gates hasn't torpedoed anything that belongs to the Navy--yet. But its $100 billion plan to buy a new fleet of 100,000-ton aircraft carriers (and the ships and subs to defend them) is a tempting target. That's a huge investment in gigantic ships that are increasingly vulnerable to long-range missiles--and even pirates or terrorists in a dinghy. At the heart of the debate is whether the Navy can make do with the 281 ships it has or needs to grow about 10%, to 313 ships. Gates has good reason to be skeptical. The Navy...
...succeed, Gates will need backing from Obama, along with a plan to spend defense dollars more smartly, during the recession. Despite the protestations of lawmakers, defense spending is an inefficient way to create jobs because the skills that defense jobs demand require premium paychecks. (Civilians working on missile defense for Boeing in Arizona earn three times the state average, the company boasts--great for them, but not so good for taxpayers or the unemployed.) Gates has sent the White House $10 billion in military projects to include in the stimulus package--barracks, hospitals, clinics, child-care centers--that can more...