This is in keeping with the White House's articulated jobs strategy. It's not just about jobs now. It's about jobs that last, and jobs that build something that lasts even longer.
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed in December, Christina Romer, chair of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, rejected public works projects and explained that Obama wouldn't spend money on jobs for the sake of jobs. He wants to build something. I expect this will be the theme of Obama's job creation section of the State of the Union.
Romer focused on tax credits for home retrofitting, which would boost green tech jobs and construction, and infrastructure. Infrastructure spending has a high multiplier effect, and as this WSJ story indicates, there's a lot of excess capacity with construction companies afraid that their already running out of projects from the first round of stimulus.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/01/obama-high-speed-rail-is-fast-track-to-jobs/34295/
