Trump's tax reform plan won't get done by Congress' summer break: Ron Paul
Former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) raised doubts that President Trump’s infrastructure plan would be the win for the U.S. job market that many are hoping for, telling the FOX Business Network’s Dagen McDowell, “I don’t happen to believe that public works projects [are] a way to get more jobs. You might get more jobs, but they won’t be the same as if you got more jobs in the private sector because governments tend to make a lot of mistakes.”
Paul also saw the infrastructure proposal as another government program piling on to America’s already mounting debt.
“A lot of people don’t recognize the obstacle being really [in] debt and when you have a lot of debt, it’s hard to spend money. So, if you come up with $1 trillion for the military and $1 trillion for a public works and repairing highways, where’s the money going to come from?”
According to Paul, it is a challenge changing the behaviors of politicians that lead to more debt.
“Debt is big and when you start cutting back, it’s a problem, I mean it’s hard to get an addict off their drugs and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
But when McDowell pointed out a key aspect of the proposal is a public-private partnership driving much of the funding from the private sector, Paul responded, “This whole thing of partnerships that bothers Libertarians because partnership of big business and big banks and government isn’t exactly what a free society is all about.”
Paul then reacted to whether Republicans could achieve tax reform before Congress’ summer recess, responding, “No, they’re not going to get that done, there’s too many special interests, they should just be cutting spending and cutting taxes and if you can’t cut it all at one time, cut something.”