ALL good ideas by Reagan because they forced the State or entity to work within the FREE ENTERPRISE system and NOT count on the Federal Government to subsidize its needs.
But, there was a period of time from about 1900 going forward in which the federal govt spent a large sum of money on dam building which played a very big role in developing agriculture output, creating power for industrial output and residential power to include rural electrification, and loss prevention from flood control. No doubt dam building during the depression created a lot of jobs.
Another example is building the Interstate Highway system.
Nowadays, everybody in the GOP wants a govt like the govt in Somalia or Yemen.