GOELRO Plan

The first economic recovery plan of the Soviet Union: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOELRO_plan

Said Lenin: "...the organization of industry on the basis of modern, advanced technology, on electrification which will provide a link between town and country, will put an end to the division between town and country, will make it possible to raise the level of culture in the countryside and to overcome, even in the most remote corners of the land, backwardness, ignorance, poverty, disease, and barbarism."

Doesn't the economic recovery plan brewing in Congress right now contain some muted echo of this spirit? The bills in the House and the Senate have been pitched by some, mostly on the Democratic side of the aisle, as an opportunity to create a new energy system by mobilizing "modern, advanced technology," theoretically also restoring some economic vitality to rural areas and building a power grid to transport that energy to cities ("a link between town and country"). The House bill, at least, also contained huge sums of money for education ("ignorance") health care ("disease"), and low-income tax credit expansions ("poverty"), as well as some funds for extending the reach of the internet to "the most remote corners of the land" ("to raise the level of culture in the countryside").

I'm not making a judgment about either the USSR's plan or the US's. Just noting a language similarity.