America desperately needs modern Marshall Plan

At the end of World War II Europe lay in ruins, its economy shattered.  A war weary America was ready to turn its attention inward. But President Truman knew better.  He saw clearly the coming threat of Soviet expansionism and he knew that Europe had to be rebuilt. 

Truman boldly enunciated the Truman Doctrine and initiated the Marshall Plan.  That Plan, named after General George C. Marshall, who was then Truman’s Secretary of State, overcame the opposition of isolationists at home and was instrumental in rebuilding the economies of Western Europe, as the Cold War began.

Today we know that Harry Truman was a great president.  When this nation was at greater risk than most realized Truman’s instinct, common sense, and courage was exactly what was needed.

Today America faces new threats and the most significant one of them is one that most Americans and their elected leaders either deny or under appreciate. Our way of life, our democratic institutions, our national security, and our position as the world’s only superpower are all in danger of collapse as a consequence of our skyrocketing national debt.

Our main competitors on the world economic stage today are China and India.  And they are the nations that hold a disproportionately large amount of our $14 trillion dollar debt.  Were they to choose to demand payment, we are looking at Armageddon.

The President’s Commission on the Debt and the Deficit has laid out the scope and magnitude of this nightmare in stark detail.  The question is whether President Obama in his forthcoming State of the Union Message and in his budget for fiscal year 2012 will propose the painful steps to put America back on track before it’s too late.

At a minimum these steps will require restructuring Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.  They will require significant reductions in federal discretionary spending, including Defense and Homeland Security.   And they will require rewriting the income tax code and raising taxes on all of us. 

And all of this must be begun in the face of a jobless economic recovery.  Today the real rate of unemployment stands at almost 20%.

America needs a new Marshall Plan.  This Plan needs to rebuild the shattered American economy.  Its core should consist of two very different, but complementary, initiatives.  The first would entail a massive program to rebuild America’s crumbling infrastructure—roads, bridges, sewer systems, power plants, rail systems, airports, and power grids. The second would entail efforts to explosively grow American exports.  Both of these efforts will, by definition, create jobs—millions of them.

Wouldn’t it be fortuitous if we had a brilliant General of the Armed Forces who was also a skilled Secretary of State, like General George C. Marshall, to lead such a monumental national effort?

We do.  His name is Colin Powell.  Are you listening, Mr. President?

LeRoy Goldman

January 7, 2011

Please visit:  http://capau.org