A running joke about academia is that PhD really stands for "piled higher and deeper."  With that in mind, it's worth noting that Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown has a PhD in economics.  All kidding aside, you certainly wouldn't guess those credentials based on what she told staff at Crosscut when she visited their office this week.  From Crosscut's blog:

Despite the massive revenue shortfall and tough economic times, Brown says now might be a good time to spend money on job-creating infrastructure improvements, including transportation....

Next year's legislative agenda will be dominated by the state's projected $3.2 billion revenue shortage, but Brown says infrastructure will be a priority. "It's a good time" to address the poor economy by "doing more on infrastructure ... in a job-oriented way,"... [emphasis mine]

I always laugh when I hear the fallacy that government "creates jobs," and the laughter gives way to tears when I see it in print.

Make no mistake:  the only way government can create a job is by first taking money away from someone else (i.e., taxpayers).  I've said it before and I'll say it again---it's akin to me burning my neighbor's house down in the name of keeping local construction workers employed.  In economic jargon it's referred to as the broken window fallacy.  Another way to look at it is vis-a-vis what economist Henry Hazlitt referred to as the "seen vs the unseen" consequences of economic policy.  If government takes money from me to "create" a job, that is the "seen" effect, but "unseen" is the fact that I then have less money to spend in the economy purchasing goods and services, which means other sectors of the economy will suffer.  All of this is economics 101, a topic someone with a PhD should understand. 

And by the way, we're talking about an elected official who's suing to make it easier for the state to raise taxes, just in case you're wondering how she plans to pay for all the jobs the state will "create."