News Analysis - A Stimulus Plan With Dual Goals - Reform and Recovery - NYTimes.com

In fact, at various times in American history, moments like this one have been used for big programs, from integrating the armed forces to creating Social Security and, later, Medicare. So it is little wonder that everyone with a big, stalled, transformative project — green energy programs, broadband networks that reach into rural America, health insurance for the newly unemployed or uninsured — is citing the precedent of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and declaring that a new New Deal is overdue.

News Analysis - A Stimulus Plan With Dual Goals - Reform and Recovery - NYTimes.com