Infrastructure spending is a deficit nightmare: Kennedy
You thought health care and endless wars were expensive, we haven't even touched bridges and dams! The president is now focused on his big package, infrastructure spending.
This will be a big week for infrastructure. After so stupidly spending $7 trillion in the Middle East, it is now time to start investing in our country!
This will be a big week for Infrastructure. After so stupidly spending $7 trillion in the Middle East, it is now time to start investing in OUR Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 12, 2018
He's absolutely right in that our foolish exploits in the Middle East have been deadly, pointless and really expensive, and we would be right to curtail our interventionist fetish.
However, a $1 trillion infrastructure plan doesn't exactly combat ballooning deficits and the borrowing and generational theft that follows.
The president is also right that we must engage the private sector to bring costs down and get big projects done faster, but when government is involved—even when money is block granted to states—it is never private enough. He also says the permitting process will be shortened by 80% from 10 years to two or even one, and combined with any decentralization, that makes the enterprise slightly better, but still way....too...expensive.
If states and companies are forced to pony up $800 billion for these vague plans, the money will come from higher taxes which is a death sentence for bureaucratic, inefficient states like California and New Jersey. We learned this from the panic shriek over SALT deductions during the tax debate. States like Illinois, with so much unfunded pension liability, will collapse under the weight of the newly poured concrete if their spread-thin citizens are expected to further foot the bill for more bad decisions.
The president's heart is in the right place, and construction is his expertise, but without meaningful cuts to entitlements and an honest talk about military efficiency, it is a certain disaster that will make the economy collapse faster than a rotten, rusty bridge.