In his weekly address on Saturday, President-elect Obama outlined a huge public-works program – the biggest investment in the nation’s infrastructure since the creation of the interstate highway system under Eisenhower. The New York Times and The Washington Post report the details on their front pages this morning. Obama also appeared on Meet the Press this morning, where he said “the economy is going to get worse before it gets better,” but that his recovery plan is “equal to the task ahead.”

We were slightly ahead of the curve on this story, with our show last week on rebuilding America’s infrastructure.  Tom and our guests (including David Leonhardt of The Times and two of the country’s top infrastrucure experts) talked about how the combination of an economic crisis and the need for massive infrastructure investment has created enormous immediate challenges and opportunities – like creating the green, competitive infrastructure of the 21st century, if we can get it right.

Now that Obama’s plans are emerging in more detail, we can start to assess whether what he’s proposing is the kind of smart investment the country needs. Can he strike the right balance? What do you think?

Here’s Obama’s address, which is posted (along with the text) at change.gov, the official transition website:

Tags: Barack Obama, infrastructure