Trump’s Humongous infrastructure con
To watch this video on
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W_xg2O6dYY
It’s the biggest Trump
con since he told Americans the tax cut would help them more than the rich.
He’s calling for a $1.5 trillion boost in infrastructure spending – but he’s
proposing just $200 billion in federal funding.
So where does the rest
come from? Tax hikes on the middle-class and poor, and from private
investors.
1. State and
local governments, already starved for cash, would have to raise taxes.
2. Private
investors, for their part, won’t pitch in unless they’re guaranteed a good
return on their investment, most likely in the form of tolls and other user
fees. Or worse, governments might be forced to transfer ownership of
roads and bridges to private corporations.
So the public will end
up paying twice: in higher taxes and higher tolls, and won’t even get what’s
needed.
3. Projects that will be most attractive to big investors are where tolls and fees will bring in the biggest bucks: Brand new highways and bridges rather than the thousands of smaller bridges, airports, pipes, and water treatment facilities most in need of repair.
4. Trump’s
infrastructure plan only worsens the racial justice divide in America, by
leaving disadvantaged communities behind while giving massive profits to the
rich and corporations through new tolls and fees.
5. It’s a double con
because now that Trump and the Republicans have enacted a huge tax cut for
corporations and the rich, there’s no money left for infrastructure. The White
House says the $200 billion of federal spending will be offset by cuts
elsewhere in the federal budget, but doesn’t explain how or where.
Given what we know of Trump’s and the GOP’s priorities, that means taking money from programs that protect vulnerable Americans, not from the billions in wasted on military spending.
Given what we know of Trump’s and the GOP’s priorities, that means taking money from programs that protect vulnerable Americans, not from the billions in wasted on military spending.
A real infrastructure
program – as opposed to Trump’s fake program – would focus on repairing
existing infrastructure, doing so based on need rather than financial returns,
prioritizing public transportation over private, and clean water and renewable
energy over projects that generate more pollution.
And it would be paid
for by closing tax loopholes used by big corporations and the rich, not by
imposing higher taxes, Trump tolls and user fees on the rest of us.
To really make America
great again we need more and better infrastructure that’s for the public – not
for big developers and investors.
Robert B. Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at
the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center
for Developing Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton
administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective
cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fifteen books,
including the best sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of
Nations," and "Beyond Outrage," and, his most recent,
"Saving Capitalism." He is also a founding editor of the American
Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary,
"Inequality For All." Reich's newest book is "The Common
Good." He's co-creator of the Netflix original documentary "Saving
Capitalism," which is streaming now.