Is Trump Infrastructure Plan Dead on Arrival?
Trump plan still sees limited role for federal spending to fix infrastructure. Photo: U.S. Dept. of Transportation
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Getting President Trump’s infrastructure plan through Congress may make the actual fixing of America’s crumbling highways (and the rest of its subpar infrastructure) a mere walk in the park.
The plan, finally rolled out by the White House on Feb. 12 as a “framework for rebuilding infrastructure,” largely sticks to the script that has been talked up by the president and/or leaked by administration officials going back for nearly an entire year.
The 55-page plan can be boiled down to two key elements: A prime-the-pump concept for funding infrastructure improvements and a campaign to slice the red tape that can slow projects and drive up their costs.
While few on Capitol Hill or in trucking, not to mention American business in general, will argue against spending a lot– and spending it wisely– to bring our infrastructure into the 21st century, the horse-trading and arm-twisting by the president and leaders in Congress will be all about who will pay for the $1.5 trillion package— and how exactly they will pay for it.
Priming the Pump
The Trump plan envisions spending $200 billion in federal funds— attained via unspecified cuts in the White House budget proposal for fiscal year 2019 (also released on Feb. 12)– to stoke the spending of another $1.3 trillion or more in public (including state and local funds) and private investments.
The president had first promised a $1 trillion infrastructure plan on the day after his election; it was during his State of the Union address last month that he upped the ante by another $500 billion.
To be sure, the proposal faces an uphill fight in Congress. On the one hand, conservative Republicans are already blanching at the plan’s total cost, especially …Read the rest of this story
