TRUMP’S INFRASTRUCTURE PROPOSAL IS FULL OF HOLES

….Failing Infrastructure: This bridge was built to catch pieces that fall off of the older upper bridge

 

Trump’s budget proposes $240 billion in infrastructure budget cuts….?

 

As usual, what comes out of the president’s mouth is either a lie or is pure horse manure.  And he did it again this week when he offered up his long-awaited plan to, “rebuild America's crumbling infrastructure”.

 

To summarize what Trump presented, his budget would cut more federal spending on the same programs than it would add.

 

In other words, Trump had a meeting in the White House where he met with state and local officials where he called for spending $200 billion in federal funds over the coming decade. The bizarre hope is that this would stimulate what the White House says could exceed $1.5 trillion in new investment in roads, bridges, waterways and other infrastructure, when spending by other levels of government and the private sector is factored in.  However, this is all just speculation that many economists don’t agree with today.

Besides unveiling his infrastructure plan, Trump also released his 2019 budget blueprint. Combing through this proposal, $240 billion in proposed cuts over the coming decade where shown for an array of existing infrastructure programs.  That is $40 billion more cuts than the $200 billion that Trump is proposing in “new” spending.

 

In addition, what the president is doing is also switching the long-time program where in the past, all infrastructure programs for the nation’s roads, bridges and such infrastructures were where the feds would provide 80% of the funds and the states would provide 20%.  This has been a good program that has worked well for decades.

But the Trump proposal is to do a 180° turn and have the states provide 80% vs 20% from the feds.  The reality is that there are probably only 10% of the states that have that kind of funding capability.  And remember, US states are not allowed to carry a deficit, as does the federal government.

 

What has been the real issue for the highway infrastructure is that even though all highway building costs have continued to rise, the federal gas tax has not been raised for 25 years.  And to show that both the labor unions and the business communities are both in lock-step in supporting an increase in the federal gas tax.  That is shown by the National Chamber of Commerce and the AFL&CIO unions both agree on raising the gas tax.

 

Since this was a presidential proposal, hopefully the do-nothing US Congress will get off their butts and keep Trump’s proposal from becoming reality.  The Reps and Senators that represent their states and districts, hopefully they will realize that their states do not have that kind of money, especially those states that don’t have a state sales tax.

 

You may recall that Donald J. Trump says he is the “King of Debt” and yet he had to go into corporate bankruptcy 4 times.  Yes, this self-described great negotiator has gone bankrupt 4 times and he has been involved in over 3500 lawsuits since he went into business.  Many of these suits were for Trump refusing to pay for work performed by his hired contractors.

And having the United States going bankrupt is not an option.

 

The White House budget proposes major increases to defense spending and serious cuts to the nation’s safety net, which includes cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Food Stamps and the federal deficit would still remain and would increase by billions.

Trump said what he has proposed is “a common-sense and bipartisan plan that every member of Congress should support.” Many economists have stated that the president doesn’t know what he’s talking about. But Trump did acknowledge the challenges ahead in his lobbying lawmakers that have to consider if their states have the appropriate financing.  “If for any reason they don't want to support it, hey, that's going to be up to them,” Trump said. “What was very important to me was the military.

 

What is important to me and many Americans is that this “King of Debt” has no idea what it takes to run this government.  And for an individual that lies an average in excess of 5 times a day, I have no faith that Donald J. Trump’s ideas for running the country have any relevance to reality.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2018