US infrastructure investment boosts economy during the worst of times.

[Scuba]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#44679480


Remember when electricity first came to your house? I do. Our farm was connected in 1954, IIRC. We installed indoor plumbing the next year.



Rachel covers the Rural Electrification Program and how it helped Americans during the depression, and draws analogies to today's economic and political enviromment.


With guest E.J. Dionne. Runs just over 11 minutes.

[liberal N proud]

1. Look at what the WPA programs did for America

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, when as many as one out of four Americans could not find jobs, the federal government stepped in to become the employer of last resort. The Works Progress Administration (WPA), an ambitious New Deal program, put 8,500,000 jobless to work, mostly on projects that required manual labor. With Uncle Sam meeting the payroll, countless bridges, highways and parks were constructed or repaired.

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/wpaintro/intro01.html