We Piddle Around.

If you recognize that term, you must be as old as I am. That was what the average man on the street called President Roosevelts "Works Projects Administration" - the W.P.A. - throughout the 1930s.

Part of the New Deal solution to the depression, the W.P.A. was supposed to put people to work, get money into the economy AND, improve the infastructure!

Even today you can occasionally find an old shelter house at a national park, or perhaps a foot bridge somewhere, that bears the logo of the W.P.A.! So, yes, the effort did do something toward rebuilding the infrastructure. You may also argue that it made welfare recipients work for their handout. But you will be hard pressed to find anyone who will say the W.P.A. stimulated the economy.

What everyone who remembers the 1930s can tell you is that everything the W.P.A. did was done in slow motion. They piddled around.

Now Congress is again talking about stimulating the economy by pouring billions into "shovel ready" projects to improve the infrastructure. I suspect the only thing those shovels are ready for is being leaned on.

Ho hum.

The politicians also learn slowly.