WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump wants to spend $2 trillion on infrastructure projects to create jobs and help the collapsing economy rebuild from the coronavirus’ stunning blows. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says that seems about right.
Sounds like the prelude to a bipartisan deal. Except that when it comes to trying to upgrade the country’s road, rail, water and broadband systems, Washington frequently veers off the tracks — usually over the bill’s contents and how to pay for it.
“We are an economy that depends on public goods to educate our children, move goods from place to place, ensure our safety,” said Jared Bernstein, who was chief economist to former Vice President Joe Biden. “They simply haven’t been willing to sit down and hammer out an infrastructure plan that both sides could agree on.”
The parties have been bedeviled so consistently by disagreements over a goal both say they embrace that it has been encapsulated in jokes about “infrastructure week” — shorthand for Trump plans to roll out proposals that never materialize.
This time could be different, as leaders of the mostly locked-down country desperately try addressing the historic loss of jobs and averting the worst economic collapse since the Depression. Congress and Trump have already approved over $2.2 trillion to bail out the demolished economy and overwhelmed health care system — all of it by adding to the national debt.
Yet even with both sides agreeing that infrastructure can be a reliable way of creating jobs and modernizing systems that themselves add muscle to the economy, it’s unclear they can reach an election-year compromise.
“A lot of this is theater, staking out the high ground for the fight that’s coming,’’ said Liam Donovan, a lobbyist who’s specialized in infrastructure work.
Pelosi, D-Calif., and other top Democrats sketched out their own evolving infrastructure plan on Wednesday.
Its anchor would be a $760 billion package for roads, mass transit, water systems and high-speed internet networks, with more money coming for education, housing and community health centers. Democrats offered no apologies that their plan included clean energy and other environmental proposals.
“If you’re going to rebuild it, let’s rebuild it the right way,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Trump made his proposal by tweet on Tuesday, saying the plan should be “VERY BIG & BOLD, Two Trillion Dollars.” He elaborated later to reporters.
“We redo our roads, our highways, our bridges. We fix up our tunnels, which are, many of them, in bad shape,” he said.
Congress’ top Republicans have been guarded about the idea but have stopped short of ruling it out.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he’ll oppose any Democratic effort to use a fresh economic recovery bill to advance environmental restrictions or other policy preferences. “We need to make certain that any further actions we take are directly related to this public health crisis.” McConnell told told Fox News Radio’s Guy Benson on Tuesday.
“This isn’t a time to attempt to reshape American life through the eyes of one political party,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
