Cut the cuts

I keep reading about Obama's tax cuts. In the past, I've, for the most part, been a fan. But once several banks started to fail, the American auto industry sputtered and the rest of the world's economy fell, I started thinking differently. 

I've been listening to some financial news, researching past efforts, and thinking a lot on this subject. My conclusion is that, although tax cuts are nice, they are not the answer to this problem. Here is my idea of what tax cuts do. 

Give people some extra money to give to banks/auto industry/whatever>People, in turn, go to Walmart> The money the U.S. government gave to help resurge American companies, is now (at least partly) invested in Honduran sweatshops>Now, the U.S. government has less money (because of the tax break, and in turn, now in other countries) to give to invest in other means to strengthen our economy.

What has worked: job creation. During the Great Depression, America went into what is called the "New Deal Era." During this time, Roosevelt made new jobs (a lot which had to do with the environment) to lower the unemployment rate. Today, America is in a similar situation where most unemployed citizens want to, but can not find work. Here is where the government could help.

Building a wind farm, for instance, takes a lot of people. We need the people to dig holes, people to build the different parts of machinery, people to erect them, people to maintain them, etc. If we kept this work in the U.S., not only would this boost our workforce, but it would have the added benefit of reducing our dependance on other countries. 

Currently, the United States is not a country that can stand on its own. If every other country cut us off from trade, we would not be able to survive. Maybe this could be a goal to work toward to keep employment, and therefore our spending (both governmental and personal) in house.