General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRemember when Trump was going to make American infrastructure great again?
Donald Trump likes to make big promises. He has a little trouble, however, with something called follow-through. There was the one about building a great and beautiful border walland getting Mexico to pay for it. Another big promise from The Man Who Lost The Popular Vote centered on a massive investment in U.S. infrastructure. So far, despite having Republican majorities in both houses of Congressand thus all the votes he should need to pass an infrastructure bill through reconciliation, if necessaryTrump has managed to get Congress to allocate exactly the same amount of money toward that effort the government of Mexico has allocated toward paying for the aforementioned wall. In other words: zero.
Mr. 46 Percent of the Popular Vote started touting his ability to deliver on infrastructure even before he announced his candidacy for the White House (by fear-mongering about Mexican immigrants, in case youd forgotten). One year later, in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, he returned to the matter: Our roads and bridges are falling apart. We will build the roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, airports and the railways of tomorrow. This, in turn, will create millions of more jobs.
After Hillary Clinton proposed a five-year, $275 billion infrastructure spending plan, Trump promised that he would spend at least double. Two weeks before the election, he released a 100-day action plan that he pledged would spur $1 trillion over a decade. In both his victory speech (We are going to fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals. And we will put millions of our people to work) and his inaugural address (Americas infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay), Trump again highlighted his desire to make infrastructure a high priority.
The infrastructure train looked unstoppable, enough so that Steve Bannon wanted to be sure everyone knew that he was actually the one driving it:
Im the guy pushing a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan. With negative interest rates throughout the world, its the greatest opportunity to rebuild everything. Shipyards, ironworks, get them all jacked up. Were just going to throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks. It will be as exciting as the 1930s, greater than the Reagan revolution conservatives, plus populists, in an economic nationalist movement.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/9/2/1792153/-Remember-when-Trump-was-going-to-make-American-infrastructure-great-again#read-more
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)infrastructure related disaster. We are very neglectful as a nation in maintaining our systems and this administration has assured us that it is not a priority for them. To rebuild our infrastructure would mean fewer tax cuts for the wealthy, which is something Trump is already considering again.
underpants
(182,826 posts)Infrastructure does need a massive investment but we shot our wod for the rich donors.