[blam]

I've read a number of articles that state that America's coming cheap energy will force manufacturing companies to invest here again.

Seems like a reasonable argument.

One problem I see:
One piece of heavy equipment with one driver and a mechanic and do the job that 100 men with shovels did in 1933.
What job will the other 98 (low skilled) workers do?

[Pollster1]

Looking at this situation from another angle, let’s say you’re a president who just got re-elected . . . From the get-go of your first inauguration you didn’t care too much for America’s fossil fuel industry . . . But here’s the rub. You’re in the middle of what could be America’s next great depression and you’re being beat over the head with a fossil fuel-fueled renaissance like America hasn’t seen in decades. The cheap energy is staring you in the face . . . That’s where Obama finds himself today . . . A borderline socialist president, dealing with a poor economy and high unemployment? All at the same time America’s renaissance is gearing up? Well . . . I believe this convergence of factors will squeeze Obama into utilizing America’s newfound energy bonanza.

1. I don't accept the "borderline" modifier for our socialist leader.

2. I believe Obama will gleefully crush anything that might promote economic recovery - especially cheap energy of any kind.

[DuncanWaring]

The underlying fallacy in this piece is the failure to recognize that as the price of fossil fuels drops, Dingy Harry and The Won will increase taxes on them even faster.

[concerned about politics]

I've read a number of articles that state that America's coming cheap energy will force manufacturing companies to invest here again.

I doubt it. Whatever profit they make will be taken away from them for more freeloader handouts. Someone still has to come up with the money for Obomacare, which is going to be more costly than anyone could ever imagine. It's going to be a national nightmare. Then, there's the new free stuff added to win the election. Someone has to pay for the sex life of Americas parasites. Someone will have to pay for all those kids freeloading around the colleges for years.

No. Stay away from the U.S.. When you dance with the devil...er, I mean Marxists, you get burnt. That's just the way it is, because if you have a business - you didn't build it. Therefore, you don't own it.

.

[RJS1950]

This would be nothing but a full-employment act for labor unions; to repay them for their support.

FUBO & FAD

[Slyfox]

The other 98 workers will sling shovels, no doubt.

Same thing happened in the other marxist "paradises."

[Kozak]

Would have been true if Romney and a few GOP senators were elected. The rats will make sure this baby is aborted, they hate fossil fuels. So look for a deluge of regulation to strangle oil and natural gas in te US ( first salvo already fired with putting a couple of millin more acres of oil shale off limits).

[sodpoodle]

It will be presented by the Administration as the Obama Infrastructure Endeavor in all 50 States & will be Federalized. All workers will be categorized as Federal employees (also unionized) attached to the Army Corps of Engineers.

State Governors will be forced to accept the ‘offer they cannot refuse’ to approve this monstrosity and it will be Obama’s legacy - more expensive, but more applauded than ObamaCare.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

This is insanity. A water main in Baltimore is NOT the problem of the US Federal Government. Its Baltimore’s or Maryland’s problem. Perhaps its even the private utility’s problem. So why can’t Baltimore pay for it — because they spend all their money on keeping a huge number of workers on the public teat and on forms of transfer payments and have no money for what used to be core services like infrastructure. So now let’s use the federal tax power to turn it into a federal issue since the Fed isn’t quite broke yet. Its like a junkie maxing out credit card after credit card until the credit card companies stop giving them cards.

There is plenty of money in the current federal budget to pay for federal infrastructure projects (if you get rid of the extras like electronic billboards every couple of miles). The rest is a state issue.

[1010RD]

So the author believes that the President who squandered the “stimulus” on pure political waste will suddenly discover how to do it right? All these 90 year old water mains were 86 years old in 2008. Why didn’t Obama fix them originally?