>We tried that

When? ARRA was sold as that, but it became more about tax cuts and propping up state governments that a public works program.

> and can't do it today.

We're going to have to do it some point: http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/

May as well do it now while people are out of work and interest rates are low.

> >We tried that

> When? ARRA was sold as that, but it became more about tax cuts and propping up state governments that a public works program.

And your new program won't be that because ....?

We can also look at currrent infrastructure spending. It's basically all jobs program, starting with the Davis-Bacon requirement.

> We're going to have to do it some point: http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/

> May as well do it now while people are out of work and interest rates are low.

Um, the facts that we need to do it and now would be a good time to do it do not imply that we'd actually do it.

We're doing a lot of infrastructure spending now. How about fixing it before embarking on an expansion? That way, we won't have wasted a lot of money that could be used when we're actually going to fix infrastructure.

Yes, interest rates are low now, but lenders want their principle back as well, so wasting money now can affect our ability to borrow and spend when we're serious.

There is also the problem of diminishing returns. Paving the roads and later upgrading them to highways improved the transportation capabilities a lot. I am at a loss as to what you would upgrade to now (unless you want to make it greener, but environmentalism doesn't improve the economy).

> I am at a loss as to what you would upgrade to now

There are upgrades to be had: HSR (where it makes sense), more modern air traffic control, intelligent transport systems, multimodal facilities, high-speed internet, power generation (green or otherwise), smart grid, flood contro, seismic refits, etc.

But we don't even need to discuss upgrading the infrastructure, most of what we have now is subpar because of decades of deferred or non-existent maintenance. We will need to spend billions just to get our existing systems up to par,

What about improving the American school system?

We're getting far afield, but the problem with American education isn't a lack of funding. Look at the slope of a graph of education funding over time, and you'll see that it would be difficult to pump cash in any more quickly than we already have -- and to no avail.