Trump pledges to fix infrastructure but $200bn plan falls well short - Polidicks

[QUOTE][URL="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump"]Donald Trump[/URL] unveiled a $200bn plan to fix America’s crumbling infrastructure – a plan that falls woefully short of the trillions civil engineers say is needed to rebuild the country’s tattered backbone and is likely to face intense opposition from Democrats and Republicans. Trump said in a statement: “We will build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways all across our land. And we will do it with American heart, and American hands, and American grit.” He said the plans constituted “the biggest and boldest infrastructure investment in American history”. Trump has earmarked $200bn in federal funds to encourage states, cities and private enterprise to rebuild the nation’s dams, roads, bridges, airports and other essential infrastructure. The aim is to encourage $1tn of extra investment. Trump campaigned on the need infrastructure reform, promising to spend [URL="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/27/trump-pledges-to-spend-big-on-infrastructure.html"]“big”[/URL] on infrastructure and consistently touted his record as a builder. But the promised federal funds are a fraction of the $2tn that the American Society of Civil Engineers says is needed to repair US infrastructure. Last year, the ASCE gave the US’s infrastructure a [URL="https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/"]D+ grade [/URL]and said failure to act would cost the US economy $4tn by 2025. The plan is also likely to run into opposition in Congress. There is widespread support for public works spending among Democrats, but little appetite to work with Trump. House [URL="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/democrats"]Democrats[/URL] have already unveiled an alternative plan that would inject $1tn in direct federal spending – five times what Trump will propose – into infrastructure. Trump is likely to face opposition, too, from fiscally conservative [URL="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/republicans"]Republicans[/URL], especially following the passage of last year’s $1.5tn tax cut plan and last week’s budget agreement, which critics charge will add another $420bn to the national debt. Trump appeared to acknowledge on Monday that the infrastructure plan may not pass. At a press conference, he said the plan was not as important as military spending or the tax cuts he passed in December. “What was very important to me was the military; what was very important to me was the tax cuts; and what was very important to me was regulation. This is of great importance, but it’s not nearly of that category because the states will have to do it themselves if we don’t do it,” he said. [/QUOTE] Source: [URL]https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/12/trump-infrastructure-plan-200bn[/URL] The plan (PDF 55 pages): [URL]https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/INFRASTRUCTURE-211.pdf[/URL] It's really hard to find a detailed breakdown at the moment without having to rely on either an opinion article from an otherwise approved source, or a source with Mixed reporting. Tellingly, I can't find a single source praising it from either side of the fence. It falls well short of what America needs, doesn't commit nearly as much federal funds as the Democrats would like to see, and adds more to the deficit even after the tax cuts and Trump's proposed budget. I did find one source praising the environmental and permit deregulation but it's not allowed in this section. Personally, this was one of about 5 things I was actually looking forward to in a Trump presidency and it's a shame to see it be such a poorly put together plan.

It basically relies solely on the States raising taxes to pay for everything - the $200B is actually $100B with some extras for other purposes. There is no clear goal and plenty of opportunities to skim money to corporate friends like what happened with the Peutro Rico money.

[QUOTE]He said the plans constituted “the biggest and boldest infrastructure investment in American history”.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE][url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System[/url] In 2006, the cost of construction was estimated at about $425 billion[4] (equivalent to $499 billion in 2016[5]).[/QUOTE] Since when is $200b more than ~$400-500b?

[QUOTE=Thom12255;53127034]It basically relies solely on the States raising taxes to pay for everything - the $200B is actually $100B with some extras for other purposes. There is no clear goal and plenty of opportunities to skim money to corporate friends like what happened with the Peutro Rico money.[/QUOTE] its not even 100Bn, its broken down further to 20Bn for new, 20Bn for old projects, and then the rest gets split up further.

[QUOTE=Alice3173;53127082]Since when is $200b more than ~$400-500b?[/QUOTE] Ever since we shifted timelines to the one where earth is actually called bizarro alternative facts world.

Does this man not understand money, seriously how can you be a billionaire and not understand that we can not spend anymore? (Albeit he has bankrupted like, everything he touched but still) We're raising the military budget and spending even more money on a dumb wall that will accomplish nothing, we're stripped for cash because these stupid motherfuckers think cutting taxes and increasing spending is a good idea. Now don't get me wrong, our infrastructure is trash and we [I]do[/I] need more money put into it, but this is money we don't have and I'm seriously afraid for what the future holds if this is how our government decides to keep running itself. Looks like we'll have to learn the hard way that we can't have our cake and eat it too (Just kidding, we'll never learn)

[QUOTE]“What was very important to me was the military; what was very important to me was the tax cuts; and what was very important to me was regulation. This is of great importance, but it’s not nearly of that category because the states will have to do it themselves if we don’t do it,” he said.[/QUOTE] "This was one of my biggest campaign promises but it's no big deal if my wildly insufficient and unrealistic plan doesn't happen because I'll make the states do the work for me." He makes the [I]best[/I] deals, you guys, the greatest deals ever. Nobody makes better deals than him. Everyone calls him Mr. Dealmaker, it's true. No President in history has been more aggressive with pushing infrastructure than him. [I]Buh-[/I]lieve me. Remember that this man puts in like a maximum of two hours of actual work a day.

At this point Democrats are the party for State's rights, this is just fucking ridiculous.

[QUOTE=Bigstivie;53127277]Does this man not understand money, seriously how can you be a billionaire and not understand that we can not spend anymore? (Albeit he has bankrupted like, everything he touched but still) We're raising the military budget and spending even more money on a dumb wall that will accomplish nothing, we're stripped for cash because these stupid motherfuckers think cutting taxes and increasing spending is a good idea. Now don't get me wrong, our infrastructure is trash and we [I]do[/I] need more money put into it, but this is money we don't have and I'm seriously afraid for what the future holds if this is how our government decides to keep running itself. Looks like we'll have to learn the hard way that we can't have our cake and eat it too (Just kidding, we'll never learn)[/QUOTE] I'm a person who generally tries to see the reasoning behind other peoples' points of view, but the Trump regime has me at a total loss. It's almost comically shortsighted and evil.

Lets raise all the spending we can and lower the funding the hallmark of stability