Obama On Stimulus: Details To Come

President-elect Barack Obama urged Congress on Thursday to pass a major piece of legislation, authorizing unprecedented spending and tax cuts, in the next few weeks.

Obama called for spending on clean energy and energy efficiency programs, infrastructure, updating the nation's electrical grid digitizing health records, and increasing Broadband access. He also called for tax cuts and a big effort to halt foreclosures. His speech mentioned no specific spending level, but plans are hovering around $700 billion to $800 billion.

"I don't believe it's too late to change course. But it will be if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible," Obama said. "If nothing is done, this recession could linger for years."

Inadvertently, the speech also highlighted something else: the difficulty of authorizing so much spending in a matter of weeks in a wise and prudent way.

The closest the speech came to details was Obama's statement that the stimulus would include a $1,000 tax cut for 95% of families, echoing his campaign pledge.

But for other tax cuts and spending no specifics were provided. The spending package will provide for rebuilding crumbling bridges, roads and schools by eliminating a backlog of infrastructure projects, Obama said. He also pledged there will be no "earmarks and pet projects."

So, who then determines what's an infrastructure project? The infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" was "infrastructure." Plans were drawn up for it. Workers would have been employed to build it. What's the difference between pork, a boondoggle and useful infrastructure?