Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it.…
20252024
Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below it.
John Maynard Keynes, the trendiest dead economist of this apocalyptic moment, was the godfather of government stimulus. Keynes had the radical idea that throwing money at recessions through aggressive deficit spending would resuscitate flat lined economies - and he wasn’t too particular about where the money was thrown, in the depths of the Depression, he suggested that the Treasury could “fill old bottles with banknotes, bury them at suitable depths in disused coal mines” then sit back and watch a money-mining boom create jobs and prosperity. “It would, indeed, be more sensible to build houses and the like,” he wrote, but “the above would be better than nothing.”As President-elect Barack Obama prepares to throw money at the current downturn - a stimulus package starting at about $800 billion, plus the second $350 billion chunk of the financial bailout – we all really do seem to be Keynesians now. Just about every expert agrees that pumping $1 trillion into a moribund economy will rev up the ethereal goods-and-services engine that Keynes called “aggregate demand” and stimulate at least some short-term activity, even if it is all wasted on money pits. But Keynes was also right that there would be more sensible ways to spend it. There would also be less sensible ways to spend it.
A trillion dollars’ worth of bad ideas - sprawl-inducing highways and bridges to nowhere, ethanol plants and pipelines that accelerate global warming, tax breaks for over-leveraged McMansion builders and burdensome new long-term federal entitlements - would be worse than mere waste. It would be smarter to buy every American an iPod, a set of Ginsu knives and 600 Subway foot-longs. It would be smarter still to throw all that money at things we need to do anyway, which is the goal of Obama’s upcoming American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan. It will include a mix of tax cuts, aid to beleaguered state and local governments, and spending to address needs ranging from food stamps to computerized health records to bridge repairs to broadband networks to energy-efficiency retrofits, all designed to save or create 3 million to 4 million jobs by the end of 2010. Obama has said speed is his top priority because the faster Washington injects cash into the financial bloodstream, the better it stands to help avert a multiyear slump with double-digit unemployment and deflation. But he also wants to use the stimulus to advance his long-term priorities: reducing energy use and carbon emissions, cutting middle-class taxes, upgrading neglected infrastructure, reining in health-care costs and eventually reducing the budget deficits that exploded under George W. Bush.
Obama’s goal is to exploit this crisis in the best sense of the word, to start pursuing his vision of a greener, fairer, more competitive, more sustainable economy. Unfortunately, while 21st century Washington has demonstrated an impressive ability to spend one quickly, it has yet to prove that it can spend money wisely. And the chum of a 1 with 12 zeros is already creating a feeding frenzy for the ages. Lobbyists for shoe companies, zoos, catfish farmers, mall owners, airlines, public broadcasters, car dealers and everyone else who can afford their leisure are lining up for a piece of the stimulus. States that embarked on raucous spending and tax-outing sprees when they were flush are begging for bailouts now that they’re broke. And politicians are dusting off their unfunded mobster museums, waterslides and other pet projects for rebranding as novel-ready infrastructure investments. As Obama’s aides scramble to assemble something effective and transformative as well as politically achievable, they acknowledge the tension between his desires for speed and reform.
Obama’s upcoming American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan focuses on which of the following?
(A) Recovery of all debts from the debtors in a phased manner.
(B) Pumping money very liberally in projects that are mandatory.
(C) Investing money recklessly in any project regardless of its utility.
- A.
(A) only
- B.
(B) only
- C.
(C) only
- D.
(B) and (C) only
Attempted by 149 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Answer: The plan focuses on using stimulus to fund needed, productive investments — that is, directing money toward projects and programs that we need to do anyway to save or create jobs.
Passage evidence: the author quotes the plan’s aim to "throw all that money at things we need to do anyway, which is the goal of Obama’s upcoming American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan."
Examples listed in the passage include tax cuts, aid to state and local governments, food stamps, computerized health records, bridge repairs, broadband networks, and energy-efficiency retrofits — all framed as targeted, necessary spending to save or create jobs.
Why other interpretations are wrong:
• The plan is not described as a debt-recovery program; the passage frames it as stimulus and investment to revive aggregate demand.
• The passage explicitly warns against reckless or wasteful spending (for example, "highways and bridges to nowhere") and emphasizes the importance of spending wisely, so the plan’s goal is targeted useful investments rather than indiscriminate or reckless spending.
Conclusion: The best-supported interpretation is that the recovery plan focuses on targeted, necessary investments to stimulate demand and advance long-term priorities, not debt recovery or reckless spending.