It’s been over a month since President Donald Trump’s “infrastructure week,” which supposedly celebrated Trump’s promises to revitalize American infrastructure. Trump promised that details will come “very soon.”
In truth, his plans for infrastructure have gathered dust and have been devoid of details.
After spending the past month suffering defeats on repealing the Affordable Care Act and being distracted by many other issues, Trump has had little to show on his commitment towards infrastructure.
“Remember the $1 trillion infrastructure proposal that he spoke about? One trillion dollars. Where is it? What happened to it?” asked New York Governor Andrew Cuomo during a speech in July. “It was the single best idea that I heard come from his campaign, and now it's disappeared.”
Fact is Trump’s plan is a fantasy. Trump has only proposed spending $200 billion of unspecified funds in his infrastructure plan and offering tax incentives, which he says will magically leverage $800 billion in private investment.
Even members of Congress are not anxious to move forward on an infrastructure bill, preferring to push it off until next year while they deal with other priorities – such as giving tax breaks for the rich.
What’s more, the president is missing the mark in his promises to revitalize rural infrastructure. The Trump team’s proposal to would fix rural infrastructure would entail selling out to private contractors. And many members of Congress from rural states – those from Trump’s own party – have serious doubts that privatization would work.
AFSCME Pres. Lee Saunders blasted Trump’s infrastructure plan, calling it “a colossal $200 billion corporate handout, which will outsource good jobs to private interests at the expense of safety and accountability.”
This week, on the 10th anniversary of the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minnesota, America must re-commit to rebuilding our aging infrastructure the right way.
Instead of empty rhetoric and photo-ops from the White House, we need a plan “that will create good jobs that can sustain working families, one that invests in quality public services, and that will require those who can afford it to pay their fair share of the cost,” Saunders said.
We support a plan put forth by Senate Democrats earlier this year, which calls for a direct investment of $1 trillion over 10 years and is expected to create 15 million jobs. The Congressional Progressive Caucus has proposed a $2 trillion plan.
Neither proposal calls for privatizing the nation’s public infrastructure.