Trump infrastructure plan gets cold reception
President Trump’s proposal to revamp the nation’s roads and bridges landed with a thud on Monday, with Democrats chastising the $200 billion federal offer as too small to address the nation’s needs.
“This is not a real infrastructure plan — it is simply another scam, an attempt to sell our nation’s infrastructure and create windfall profit for Wall Street while rolling back environmental protections,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), the ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
He called the administration’s rebuilding proposal “embarrassingly small.”
Republican reactions were much more positive, with Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) saying Trump was right to make improving infrastructure a national priority.
But Ryan focused his remarks on provisions in Trump’s plan that would cut red tape for projects, and did not clearly endorse spending $200 billion to spur on private investments across the country.
“Real action to streamline the permitting process will help jumpstart projects that are vital to our communities and our economy,” he said in a statement, adding that the House has already passed infrastructure reforms and that “we look forward to working with the administration on this critical issue.”
Getting conservative Republicans on board with spending $200 billion on infrastructure will be a tough sell, and even more so after a budget deal that included $300 billion in new spending over the next two years. The combination of that bill and December’s tax-cut legislation is causing budget deficits to soar.
http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/373525-trump-infrastructure-plan-gets-cold-reception
= new reply since forum marked as read
