Nancy Pelosi's Stimulus Package

I just clipmarked an op-ed from Investors Business Daily about Nancy Pelosi's ideas for the next stimulus package. (Check out the picture source. I don't believe it, but, "Hello, Mrs. Speaker.").

"Included in that giveaway: $37 billion in public works spending on infrastructure (think pork and a lot of it), $15 billion in aid for states to pay their Medicaid bills, $6 billion to extend unemployment benefits and $3 billion for additional food stamps."

I think we need something other than a check in the mail. But I'm not sure if food stamps and unemployment benefits will do the trick. IBD op-ed page is very conservative, but this one I totally agree with. IBD calls for opening up ANWR and offshore for oil drilling, and building nuclear power and other energy infrastructure.

Energy is off the front page headlines now with the stock market gyrations and election gaffes getting the big bold print. But somewhere down the road, the world economies will get better and energy demand will go back up. And so will prices. The concerns that we had about energy prices just a few months will again be in the headlines. How many times have we heard, "It will take 10 years to bring that energy to market." Or,"Well, if we started 10 years ago, we'd have the energy now."

I agree that we need to open ANWR (and elsewhere) for oil drilling. I also think we need to get moving on more nuclear power. Electric cars are coming, and we'll need a lot more electricity to charge batteries. Our current energy grid won't do it. And all this hope and euphoria over wind and solar isn't scientifically well-founded. We should definitely do it, but it's not very reliable, the costs are pretty high, and solar panels and windmills cover a lot of real estate to generate power.

Will we be better prepared 10 years from now?