Robert Reich says "White Males Need Not Apply"

One of Barack Obama's economic advisors, Robert Reich, who served as Labor Secretary under President Clinton, was speaking to the House Steering and Policy Committee on January 7th about funding infrastructure projects across the nation, when he said this:

"It seems to me that infrastructure spending is a very important and good way of stimulating the economy. The challenge will be to do so quickly, to find projects that can be done that will have a high social return, that can also be done with the greatest speed possible. I am concerned, as I'm sure many of you are, that these jobs not simply go to highly skilled people who are already professionals or to white male construction workers," Reich said.

Reich said there are ways the money can go to others, such as the long-term unemployed, minorites and women.

It seems like the administration is signalling that they want to stimulus funds to be given to the long-term unemployed and to people with incomes at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

I will keep you informed further, but this looks like redistribution of the wealth to me, and that the need for well-built roads and bridges will be passed over for "other" needs.

We will have to wait and see where the money, all $800+ billion of it, will go.