Public Works

President-Elect Obama has announced that at least the opening phase of his economic recovery plan will entail a massive public works program, including renovations to government buildings, rebuilding schools, rebuilding road and bridge infrastructure, upgrading broadband internet connections, and digitizing the transmission of medical records. Overall, he hopes to create 2.2 million jobs. See the story at Politico.

This is presumably the first of many announcements on this subject from Obama, as he attempts to integrate his campaign priorities with job creation, this first one feels distinctly like a 21st century reference to the programs FDR tried to fight the great depression with. Taken with the existing bailout package, and the possibility of additional packages to come, Obama is certainly working to energetically address the financial crisis. While these are certainly worthy goals for job creation programs, Obama has the opportunity to take his powerful new cabinet and address far more controversial issues in his first hundred days. With the speed and resolution Obama has demonstrated in recent weeks, it feels like the honeymoon period should be reduced from one hundred to ten days, or extended to his whole first term.

I will insert this one reservation about the announcements today, at the risk of seeming a Luddite: I do not like these programs to digitize medical records and transmit them over the internet. Firstly, at this point there is no standard format for digitized records, meaning that doctors and hospitals can send materials to one another, but not necessarily read them when they get there. Secondly, I am just bracing myself for the leaks. No network can be made entirely secure- a national network with thousands of access points and tens of thousands of users is a security nightmare. Medical records might not have the same sort of profit motive as banking info, but unlike your credit information, they really can't be repaired once leaked. Hospitals stand to save tremendous sums using digital storage, but we are asking for trouble if they start networking that information. It is quite possible that Obama will attempt to address these problems. It is probably likely that I am attempting to turn back the tide on this one.