To National Review...Trump is elected...Just stop with the BS....
Thank God we have a printed, totally unbacked currency and a Central Bank that monetizes government debt and suppresses interest rates to zero - or Washington would actually need to make hard decisions....
But they won’t.
>>Michael Tanner is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute
In other words, anything that creates a good paying job or helps the working class in any way is “BAD, bad I say!” We can borrow money for a million boondoggles, but we can’t fix a bridge or expand a highway.
Michael Tanner, and the entire collection of gadfly scribes from the NR, have lost all intellectual authority when it comes to a critique of the Trump administration.
Shouldn’t we rebuild Syria first? sarc
There's nothing wrong with taking on debt to finance long-term capital expenditures like infrastructure. In fact, marrying the term of payment for a major project to the useful life of that project might even be preferable to a pay-as-you-go scenario.
The root of this country's fiscal problems is that we have been taking on debt to finance short-term operating expenditures. This is the equivalent of borrowing money to pay for groceries -- or, even worse, running up $5,000 in credit card debt for a trip to Disney World -- and paying it off over ten years. Nobody with even a rudimentary understanding of finance or economics would tell you that this is a good idea. In fact, it's a recipe for disaster.
If Trump’s infrastructure spending is offset 100% by real spending cuts, I’m all for it. Otherwise, it’s another big-government, borrow and spend, porkulis boondoggle.
This is the way Federal transportation dollars have been allocated for years. Federal transportation funding is generally used for capital projects, while regular maintenance is left to the jurisdictions that own the infrastructure (states, counties, municipalities).
The Southern Wall is the ultimate in infrastructure spending. Do it!
This article assumes that Trump will fund the infrastructure improvements in the same manner as Obama did using stimulus money and/or passed pork.
Why does he assume Trump will do things the same way? when it didn’t work? Trump will figure out how to semi privatize (or some other solution) this so that it actually gets done underbudget and on time.
This author assumes that Trump will operate in the same manner as his failed predecessors. This is unlikely and one wonders why the author of the piece is so negative.
Trump will come up with an effective plan to fix our bridges, etc. based upon his own assessment of the situation.
“Congress tends to ignore useful projects like road and bridge maintenance, in favor of more grandiose efforts that can serve as reelection fodder.”
That’s a good point.
I wish the author had made that the focus of the article: Congress’ desire to divert spending to wasteful, but politically helpful, efforts.
Instead of a general attack at Trump.
“Moore was talking, in particular, about Trump’s plan to spend $1 trillion or more on infrastructure projects.”
Funny thing about liberals, they LOVE it when Obama talks about such a thing but hate it when Trump does.
This guy is worried about corruption with Trump who's not even taken office, when we've had 25+ years of reckless government corruption from top to bottom in all directions?
What BS.
If he decides that it is still a good idea, I hope it is limited to infrastructure that the Feds are responsible for, and not just divided out to the states.
I've never heard him say this. Of course, this is the globalist Neocon Review so they would be all in favor of spending money collected by the IRS from Americans on building roads and bridges in Afghanistan and Iraq and all over the world, but for Trump to improve roads and bridges in the USA is like Hitler or Caesar or something.
What I have heard Trump say repeatedly is that our roads, bridges and airports are deteriorating and often no longer meet First World standards and need to be upgraded.
Of course, what an infrastructure bill looks like after Congress gets through with it is an open question. Obama's stimulus spending turned out to be primarily an effort to ensure that federal and state government employees were not harmed by the recession.
As Americans, we should be ashamed of our bedraggled, outdated airports,many built in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Obama spent almost a trillion dollars and we saw no infrastructure improvements at all. Surely the US taxpayers deserve to get something tangible from the money Pres. Trump will spend. That alone would buy him enormous support and good will among the voters.
National Review should sit down and shut up until they actually SEE what Trump’s plan is.
Sorry #Never Trumpers, you perpetual whining for the next 4-8 years is going to be met with contempt. You did everything you could to elect Hillary. Conservatives may forgive you for that but we will never forget.
If there are shovel-ready jobs ....
Dear Mr. Tanner:
Piss off.
F.O.A.D.
Move to Somalia.
Or any combination of the above.