condensed reply to Judd Gregg's comments

If the government invests in the nation as proposed by President Obama, will there be a healthy return on that investment?

I'll go a little further. You seem to be saying, Senator Gregg, that there will not be a return on that investment. It can be argued that the decision whether to invest or not to invest can have significant consequences, and ought to be based on well considered - that is, thorough and detailed - assessments. I suppose I would like to hear more details from your side. As a matter of fact, you listed some numbers which sound to me like they might be misleading.

To me it sounds like conservatives conflate the interests of a relatively narrow segment of the population with the interests of the nation, and define the interests of that narrowly defined group in narrow terms. According to those criteria, the interests of that group may be harmed by the policies now being implemented, although I question whether even that is demonstrated. At any rate, I hope this can be more extensively documented.

The whole debate, to my mind, revolves around the question of whether action is appropriate or not. True, excessive action is likely to be harmful. Also, inadequate action is likely to be harmful. To be fair, I'll need to return to your comments to see if you provide guidance on what appropriate action is. Meanwhile, well, for one thing, there's lots of evidence that we are suffering harmful effects of too little action, and, for another, there's a big, very well written document from the President to study.