I think “investment” in regards to government is meant less as “wild bet that will get us all rich” and more of “expenditure that will save us money 5 years down the road”.

Conflating the two is just disingebuous, and provides cover for all sort of unaccountable boondoggles like healthcare.gov (initial launch, not the hastily rebuilt version) and California EDD’s latest redesign apparently costing a shiny $1.2 bln https://calmatters.org/economy/2023/11/california-unemployme...