Shadow Government
By 
Donald Trump keeps talking about how he wants to rebuild America’s roads, bridges, and other infrastructure. Now Senate Democrats are signaling that they’d be happy to work with him on this — but they have very different ideas on how to go about it.
On Tuesday, Democrats led by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will unveil a proposal to spend $1 trillion over the next 10 years to repair old bridges and roads, expand bus and rail systems, and modernize ports, highways, airports, schools, grids, and much, much more. Unlike Trump’s plan, this would be accomplished through direct federal spending. The exact funding mechanisms are still unspecified (in recent years, Democrats have rallied around corporate tax reform to pay for infrastructure).
Trump’s own infrastructure plan is very different — during the campaign, he unveiled a proposal to offer some $137 billion in tax breaks to private investors who want to finance toll roads, toll bridges, or other projects that generate their own revenue streams. Experts across the political spectrum argued that this plan was fairly narrow, mainly focused on projects with a large private finance component that can pay for themselves. Right now, very few roads in America meet that criteria.
“[Trump’s plan] is unlikely to do much for road and bridge maintenance,” Harvard economist Edward Glaeser said when I interviewed him about the proposal last November. “And [economists] have long believed that the highest returns are for fixing existing infrastructure.” Glaeser also noted that Trump’s plan was unlikely to do much for key infrastructure items like bus service for poorer communities.
The scope of the plan is good on the merits, and it’s also good because it makes it more likely that this plan will be used as the justification for rejecting whatever crap the GOP puts to a vote, rather than being used as the start of negotiations that will result in Democrats providing cover from the crap the GOP puts to a vote. It’s crucial to remain united in opposition to these legislative proposals, but providing a superior alternative vision is also good politics even if it has no immediate chance of getting enacted.