which also includes a $400 billion Buy America procurement budget.
That would mean materials purchased for federally funded
projects would come exclusively from domestic sources, guaranteeing
the economic activity generated by that spending would
remain stateside, and also ensure that the spending would be far
more likely to directly benefit American workers.
It’s very ambitious and aspirational – rhetorically, he’s
aiming high.
What about President Trump?
What has the president proposed on infrastructure, and what has
he gotten done?
Late in the 2016 campaign, and shortly after Democratic nominee
Hillary Clinton proposed a $275 billion infrastructure spending
package, President Trump announced he’d spend $500 billion, and
then $1 trillion, on infrastructure, almost four times as much as
Clinton proposed.
Since then he’s talked at length about his desire to pass an infrastructure
bill. During the 2018 State of the Union (SOTU) address,
Trump called on Congress to pass a $1.5 trillion infrastructure
package. However, the plan his administration sent to Capitol Hill
had only $200 billion in dedicated funding, and administration
officials said the other $1.3 trillion would rise from the private
sector. It didn’t really matter, because the proposal didn’t go anywhere.
(According to reports, the president didn’t like the plan
much, anyway.)
In 2019, Trump held a series of meetings with Congressional
Democrats about passing a $2 trillion infrastructure package, but
then said an infrastructure deal would wait until after Congress
ratified his administration’s renegotiated North American trade
deal with Mexico and Canada (which it has since done). But
Trump completely canceled further infrastructure talks because
of his frustration with ongoing congressional investigations into
his administration.
Two years after pitching the $1.5 trillion infrastructure proposal
during the 2018 SOTU, President Trump abandoned the plan. He
called on Congress during the 2020 SOTU to pass a $287 billion
reauthorization of the Senate’s surface transportation bill, which
is “largely a continuation of highway policy as it’s been done for
decades,” wrote Politico. Then, when the economy shuttered and
Congress considered an emergency relief bill to help the millions
of suddenly unemployed across the country, the president tweeted
that it was again time for a $2 trillion infrastructure bill. Then, this
summer, the White House suggested it was about to put forward a
$1 trillion infrastructure bill, but it never materialized.
So Trump has talked a lot about infrastructure, but not much
has been done on this front, besides issuing a rule to “modernize
and speed environmental reviews” of infrastructure projects “with
an eye on greater efficiency and affordability.”
It’s safe to assume Trump would again advocate for trillions of
dollars for an infrastructure spending, but details outlining such a
policy are scant on his campaign website.
What’s the bottom line?
The language used in presidential campaign rhetoric is often
aspirational. If you’re a glass-is-half-empty person, it often sounds
like they’re talking loudly without saying anything. Just look at
President Trump’s record on infrastructure over the past four
years: it sounds good, it polls well, voters like it, but the issue simply
hasn’t been advanced. And should Biden win the election, it
very well could be that his administration will find an excuse to
not do anything either.
But if you’re a glass-is-half-full person – if you’re an optimist –
you’ll notice that these two old cranks are both talking about infrastructure
spending in terms of trillions. And it will take trillions
(plural) to repair the deficiencies in American public infrastructure
that have been allowed to grow over the decades. Dams fail, entire
cities have seen their drinking water systems compromised and
bridges wash out. The whole country needs an upgrade. At least
the terms on both sides of the debate – specifically, the numbers
around it – realistically match the problems.
Still, talk is cheap. Whoever is elected President of the
United States needs to make an infrastructure bill a priority.
PDCA encourages all of its members to stay involved in the
legislative process. t
INFRASTRUCTURE
palinchak/123RF
americanspirit/13RF
Donald Trump Joe Biden
70 | ISSUE 5 2020 www.piledrivers.org
/accounts-wsj
/biden_trump_infrastructure_plans_as_different_as_the_candidates_themselves
/profile_palinchak
/
/www.piledrivers.org
