TPI's Wallsten Questions Trump Infrastructure Plan
Technology Policy Institute President Scott Wallsten questioned the merits of President-elect Donald Trump’s $1 trillion infrastructure spending proposal. “An appropriate adage here is, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” Wallsten said in a blog post…
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Friday. “The real question for the infrastructure plan is whether the benefits are worth the costs, regardless of how it is financed. But claiming that this plan is necessarily revenue-neutral is misleading because to the extent these projects replace any others that would have happened otherwise, the tax revenues, as well, only replace other taxes that would have been paid.” He questioned the assumptions undergirding the plan so far. Trump has said he wants to advance such a stimulus before Congress in the first 100 days of his administration. “Increased investment in infrastructure may be good, as long as money is allocated in ways that emphasize cost-effectiveness and a focus on projects that would not happen without this additional spending,” Wallsten said. “But hopefully future planning will consider economic concepts more seriously.”