In his State of the Union address, President Trump laid out a proposal for infrastructure spending. Details were scant.

“Tonight I am calling on Congress to produce a bill that will generate at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment that our country so desperately needs. Every federal dollar should be leveraged by partnering with state and local governments, and where appropriate, tapping into private sector investment to permanently fix the infrastructure deficit. And we can do it.”

NEW: Trump calls on Congress to produce a bill to spur $1.5 trillion in infrastructure investment pic.twitter.com/PKjtocYyLp

— Axios (@axios) January 31, 2018

Lovely. How much is really needed?

Here are two estimates from a Reuters recap on Trump’s Infrastructure Spending Proposal.

  • McKinsey & Company researchers say that $150 billion a year will be required between now and 2030, or about $1.8 trillion in total, to fix all the country’s infrastructure needs.
  • The American Society of Civil Engineers, a lobbying group with an interest in infrastructure spending, puts it at $2 trillion over 10 years.

    • Details Scant

    Where is the money coming from? What percentage is from state budgets?

    Trump did not say.

  • State budgets must be balanced so state spending will require tax increases.
  • Public-private partnerships tend to be boondoggles or giveaways to political cronies.
  • Estimates tend to be low, especially when public unions are involved.

    • Synopsis

  • US debt is spiraling out of control.
  • Trump added $1.5 trillion to deficits with corporate tax cuts.
  • Trump wants to add another $1.5 trillion from somewhere without precisely stating where.
  • The US dollar is sinking.
  • Interest rates are rising.
  • The stock market is in a bubble.

    • Repeat after me. This does not matter because (make up any reason you want but this is a common one) we owe it to ourselves.

    Here is another idea: Deficits only matter when Democrats are in charge.

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