Obama's Economic Plans

President-elect Obama is pushing a very large stimulus program that's aimed at long-term projects. I was initially very opposed to this sort of program on the theories that:
1) long-term projects don't help the economy in the short run (don't provide 'stimulation');
2) this was just a way of expanding the government's size;
3) these programs were designed to prop up industries such as the construction industry, which don't deserve to be propped up, in my opinion.

However, I am beginning to conditionally support this sort of program, on a couple of conditions:
1) the money should be used for infrastructure building programs such as roads and levees, not for helping the construction industry build houses or office buildings;
2) the provisions of the plan must be temporary in nature. Programs must expire after a few years, not continue indefinitely.

With those conditions, I think this kind of program may be a good idea, because the economic downturn appears it will last at least through 2009, if not into 2010 or 2011.

The President-elect is also saying he'll hold off on raising the taxes of high-income people in this country, which is a very wise choice, because raising taxes now will only stifle the economy further and crowd out business investment and financing.