It's basically the same with Klain, who spent time arguing with the imaginary hippies who were obsessed with the stimulus involving Big Projects. Now as a certified dirty hippie, I think there was a blown opportunity to make the case for big projects, though I don't think that's the same thing as thinking big projects should have been central to the stimulus. And thinking that some big projects would be a good thing isn't just Hoover Dam nostalgia, it's thinking that...there are some big projects that we should be doing!
Klain then goes on to make the case that we should be repairing things instead of focusing on big new projects. Well, this dirty hippie mostly agrees! Or, at least, agrees that while there shouldn't necessarily be a tradeoff, there are basically limitless fast opportunities to spend money repairing water systems.
However, after arguing that we should repair stuff, Klain goes on to say that... wait, nevermind, we shouldn't be repairing stuff!
Yes, infrastructure projects create jobs. But even by the administration’s own estimate, the number of jobs created or saved by $25 billion in Recovery Act spending on roads was a mere 150,000 over a two-year period. That isn’t a trivial number, but it’s hardly a game changer for an economy that needs to create 5 million jobs each year just to keep the unemployment rate constant.
In the short run, more jobs can be created with initiatives like the payroll tax cut the administration is reportedly considering. In January, the administration extended a 2 percentage-point reduction in worker contributions to the tax during 2011. The new proposal would cut employers’ contributions, too, making it easier and cheaper for them to add workers, with an incremental contribution from federal revenue (as opposed to full federal funding for an infrastructure project).
So a paltry $25 billion didn't do all that much, so look over there...tax cuts! The current payroll tax holiday had a price tag of $120 billion.