Dr. Conca reports that the new administration presented an idiotic infrastructure plan, declaring that ‘It is time to give Americans the working, modern infrastructure they deserve.’I guess we don’t deserve much because the $1.5 trillion program only has $200 billion in federal funds, spread out over 10 years. The rest is to be ponied up by state, local and private interests, which will have to take penny-ante actions like charging tolls on highways, imposing multiple surcharges on normal services (just another kind of tax), and even privatize rest areas along highways.
This horrible plan turns the traditional 80%/20% federal-state financing upside down, to 20%/80%. States and municipalities have to find their ballooning share from the backs of the lower 90%. So much for the great tax relief for the Middle Class from the recent $1.5 trillion tax cut. Those cut taxes are what should be paying for our infrastructure builds. Instead they’ll be going to shareholders and executive bonuses while the rest of us pay for toilet paper while driving from LA to Phoenix. Fortunately, there’s not much of a chance for passage of this infrastructure plan in Congress, but it will look like Trump tried to make good on a campaign promise.
The problem is – we really need a serious trillion-dollar infrastructure bill. Our country's infrastructure has a D+ rating. And that will soon drop to an F. Together with the President’s 2019 budget request, which cuts almost $300 billion in infrastructure programs (huh?), these plans certainly will not keep America great. America became the Greatest Nation on Earth through massive government spending in the 20th century on critical infrastructure. Such infrastructure spending is never a bad thing, even as deficit spending. That’s because smart infrastructure spending always pays for itself in short order.
A real infrastructure package would save over $400 billion year, massively stimulate the economy, lower energy costs by 20%, allow more efficient manufacturing to make us more globally competitive, make us able to better endure extreme weather, create fifteen million jobs and, if structured correctly, would make industry foot most of the bill.
Read on with misgivings. ...Original URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2018/02/13/trumps-infrastructure-plan-needs-massive-renovation/#40890ead58a8
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