How Much Will Biden ’s Infrastructure Plan Eventually Cost? History Suggests Some Worrisome Answers

David BoazHere at Cato we ’ve written many times about the record of big infrastructure projects and “megaprojects”:Cost overruns are rampant.“Here is a rule of thumb to remember when you hear about a proposed government project: If a politician says that it will cost $1, it will end up costing $2 or more. ”“Contractors were essentially rewarded for delays and overruns with added cash and guaranteed profits. ”“The ongoing saga of California ’s high‐​speed bullet train may end up being as classic a story of Democratic politicians ’ hubris as the Solyndra debacle.”“Linda Bilmes, coauthor with Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz ofThe Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict,analyzes the massive problems in three somewhat smaller government projects —the Iraqi reconstruction effort, Hurricane Katrina reconstruction, and the Big Dig artery construction in Boston— and finds that ‘in any organization that starts to increase spending very rapidly there are risks of waste, fraud and inefficiency.’  ”“In fact, as megaprojects expert Bent Flyvbjerg explains in the following article, these grandiose projects operate by an iron law:over budget, over time, over and over again. ”And now we welcome theNew York Times to the beat with itsimpressive Monday story titled “Years of Delays, Billions in Overruns: The Dismal History of Big Infrastructure.” Ralph Vartabedian, who covered the “bullet train” fias...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs