Trump will almost certainly need Senate Democrats to get any infrastructure legislation through Congress, and this week they laid out a $1 trillion proposal this week that neatly matches the price tag of Trump’s own plan. But the similarities end there: If anything, Democrats set a mark that will be nearly impossible for the White House to meet.
The gaping disparity between the two approaches, and huge unanswered questions about where the money would come from, are serious warning signs for one of Trump’s top priorities. The biggest difference: Senate Democrats want to build on existing government programs and consider adding to the deficit, while Trump has emphasized tax credits that his advisers argue would pay for themselves…
The Senate Democratic infrastructure proposal would boost several programs that Republicans have opposed in recent years, creating new tax benefits for clean energy and expanding grants that originated in former President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan. Democrats also want to spend $10 billion on an infrastructure bank, an idea Hillary Clinton campaigned on that had no traction with GOP leaders during the Obama years.
Trump, by contrast, campaigned on a “deficit-neutral system” that would theoretically stimulate $1 trillion worth of private-sector investment in new projects. Trump’s Commerce Secretary pick, Wilbur Ross, projected with another adviser in October that $137 billion in tax credits could leverage the massive package, an argument that former Obama adviser Larry Summers — no friend of the left — has slammed as a path to “all kinds of tax shelter abuse.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member