Infrastructure Lovefest Bad for Taxpayers

Amidst the constant animosity between the Trump administration and Democratic congressional leaders there appears to be a rare glimmer of bipartisanship. In arecent meeting, President Trump, Senator Schumer, and Speaker Pelosi agreed to a $2 trillion infrastructure plan. While the specifics are not yet hashed out and it ’s anyone’s guess whether the plan comes to fruition, the initial details of the agreement seem to spell bad news for taxpayers.At the core of the plan is a mutual rejection of public-private partnerships (P3s), arrangements between state and local governments and private companies where the company agrees to fund and manage infrastructure in return for payments from users. Last year ’s $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan, masterminded by former Trump economic advisor Gary Cohn, relied extensively on P3s and offered only $200 billion in federal funding. The Democrats and Trump, who reportedly said about the last plan, “That was a Gary bill…. That bill was so stupid,” both agreed that the new plan would rely on federal funding. (And Trump also reportedly noted that he wanted to increase funding $100 billion because $2 trillion sounds better than $1.9 trillion. As my colleague Ryan Bourneargues, coming up with a number and then deciding how to spend it is not an effective way to determine an appropriate amount of federal spending.)Despite both sides ’ skepticism of P3s, and a recentNew York Timeseditorial that described them as “gimmickry,” P3s o...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs