Work in progress: Barack Obama aims to boost the economy with public-works jobs, infrastructure spending and investments in education and energy. Will Colorado fare as well as it did under FDR?

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: COVER STORY

As he begins his presidency, Barack Obama faces the bleakest economic landscape since the country entrusted Franklin Delano Roosevelt to rebuild the nation from the fiscal train wreck that ended the Roaring Twenties. As the Obama administration puts its economic stimulus in play, FDR's New Deal looms large--as both a prototype and a cautionary tale.

In the months following Inauguration Day in 1933, the federal government essentially put a "Help Wanted" sign up and started hiring workers for the first card of the New Deal, the Civilian Conservation Corps.

"In creating this Civilian Conservation Corps, we are killing two birds with one stone," Roosevelt said during one of his first presidential radio addresses. "We are clearly enhancing the value of our natural resources, and second, we are relieving an appreciable amount of actual distress."

Today as we stare into an economic abyss resembling the financial landscape of the 1930s, Obama has taken a similar position to FDR, signaling the need for a New Deal-like federal investment into the nation's infrastructure to create millions of new jobs.

"We won't just throw money at the problem," Obama proclaimed in a Dec. 6 address. "We'll measure progress by the reforms we make and the results we achieve--by the jobs we create, by the energy we save, by whether America is more competitive in the world."

READY TO GO: JUST ADD MONEY

In early December, Gov. Bill Ritter submitted a nonprioritized list of 160 projects totaling $1.16 billion in funding to the Obama transition team, including a $400,000 sidewalk improvement in Cheyenne Wells, $88 million worth of projects at Union Station in Denver, and a $210 million reconstruction of 1-270.

"This was done at the request of the Obama transition team," Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer says. "They're looking for projects that are 'ready to go' within 180 days after Inauguration Day."

The state is in dire need of federal support for transportation projects, Dreyer says. "Colorado's transportation budget is predicted to decline by a third--$400 million--in the next fiscal year, because of federal cuts and a decline in tax revenue. The transportation bucket is the first to drain when revenues are down. When revenues go up, it's the last bucket to fill. That bucket is just not going to fill up this time around.

"We also have an immediate need to stimulate the economy and create jobs," he adds. "Our first desire is to put Coloradans to work on Colorado projects." Dreyer says $1 billion in spending on transportation infrastructure projects equates to 35,000 to 40,000 jobs. While that figure is debatable, another is not: National construction employment is off about 800,000 jobs from its September 2006 peak. That means only a $20 billion sliver of a $1 trillion package would be necessary to restore the sector in all 50 states.

But will the skill sets of those who are thrown out of work be a good match for a massive package of construction projects? If there is a sudden spike in unemployed financial planners, car salespeople and journalists, will these folks be up to the task of building transportation and energy infrastructure for the 21st century?

"It's a good question," Dreyer says.

PUTTING THE COUNTRY BACK TO WORK

After FDR took the reins at the White House in 1933, he immediately targeted the nation's severe unemployment, which was nearing 25 percent, with massive spending on public works projects. The Civilian Conservation Corps was established immediately after Inauguration Day in March 1933 and, by the...