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HOW I
WOULD SPEND $1 TRILLION DOLLARS
by David
J. Taffi
August 15, 2006
A casual internet
search regarding the total long term costs of the war on terror and the
Iraq War is somewhere north of $1 Trillion. My gut tells me this is
money that will be like pouring water onto the hot Arabian Desert sands,
never to be seen again, but hopefully I will be wrong. Perhaps this
number will seem “cheap” 10 years from today, but I thought about
what could be done with $1 Trillion dollars if that money had been spent
here in the good old USA.
I
acknowledge many people of good faith and conscience have come to
different viewpoints regarding our foreign policies and I respect that.
The point of this short note is a wishful “what if” if we would make
our domestic problems our #1 concern, so here goes my homespun to do
list.
As
domestic spending czar with $1 Trillion dollars, I would do the
following:
- I
would modernize all of our ports, airports and points of entry with
state of art facilities, technology and scanners to prevent unlawful
entry by individuals and/or terrorist threats or bombs, while easing
the ability of people and commerce to move with a minimum of
disruption.
- I
would assist all airlines to modernize all airframes with
anti-missile defense countermeasure systems.
- I
would secure all borders to prevent illegal entry.
- I
would modernize our public transportation network to run on electric
buses and trains powered by nuclear power generated electricity and
other power sources.
- I
would triple our nuclear generating capacity.
- I
would deploy huge windmill farms on the coasts and the Dakotas to
remove most of the electrical grid from fossil fuels.
- I
would charge all automakers to transition to diesel-hybrids for
maximized fuel economy and fuel flexibility.
- I
would start a “Manhattan Project” or “Apollo Moon Program”
scale initiative to charge our best and brightest to create a new
industry with the goal of energy independence for the US. I would
charge NASA and our research universities to lead the charge for
renewable-alternative energy solutions and an energy infrastructure
redesign.
- I
would modernize our freight train and water based freight networks
to create modern inland port hubs to maximize fuel economy for bulk
freight and reduce long haul trucking traffic on our freeways and
transition to more fuel efficient truck short hauling.
- I
would make common cause with other energy hungry nations to create a
consortium for the development of alternative energy
technologies.
- I
would assure our FBI and CIA have the necessary resources and tools
to find any terrorists in the country and have them deported.
- I
would seek to reduce military spending sufficiently over the next 10
years to find yet another $1 Trillion to create another list of must
do’s to create security and energy independence. (Or allow the
defense contractors to participate in our new energy and security
industries).
I
believe we could probably eliminate 99% of terrorist risk here at home,
create hundreds of thousands of new high paying jobs, have secure
borders, create whole new industries and technologies, create a new
generation of American leadership in energy technologies, and lay a new
foundation for securing our standard of living for the next
generation.
Just
a wish list. Maybe you can think of some ways to spend $1 Trillion. At
present, we seem to lack a national vision and resolve for energy
independence and domestic security, so it’ll have to come from us. Let
me know how you would spend $1 Trillion here at home.
© 2006 David Taffi, MBA
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CONTACT
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David J. Taffi
Glendale, CA USA
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