I have little interest in posturing Democratic investigations into the Trump administration, or in President Trump’s often intemperate reaction to them. But I am very glad that the infrastructure bill appears, at least temporarily, to have been killed off by today’s acrimony.
I’m glad, because that infrastructure bill was going to play to the worst impulses of both Trump and the Democrats while providing grossly inadequate return on investment for taxpayers.
For a start, Trump had shown no indication that he was willing to apply a meaningful cost-benefit analysis to an infrastructure bill. Talking about trillions in new spending, he indicated a willingness to continue blowing up the deficit — something his former fiscal conservative chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, has sadly forgotten. This is neither conservative nor good policy. It is simply a mortgage on an already over-leveraged American future.
Even worse, I fear that Trump’s infrastructure excitement wasn’t so much about the need to fix broken highways as it was about patronage at his own fingertips. He expected to reap the benefits of distributing pork to governors and voters and contractors.
Democrats viewed infrastructure as a similar opportunity, demanding vast sums not simply for arterial highway projects — the most obvious area for value-added investment — but also for pet projects in expanding the regulatory state. And they were clear that any infrastructure bill had to be a payoff to big unions rather than to the contractors offering the best work for the lowest price.
It should have been a nonstarter for conservatives from the beginning.
But all’s well that ends well. I’m happy that Trump and Democrats are now freaking out and won’t do anything. Infrastructure reform is necessary, but not on the prevailing terms. The economy is strong and the job market continues to provide new opportunities across the social spectrum. Those are reasons to wait for conditions that make for a better infrastructure bill — one that relies far less on patronage and payoffs, and far more on joint private-public sector initiatives. That alternative approach offers better protection for taxpayer money, better management of projects, and a long term buy-in to ensure that the projects actually work as intended.
Trump and Democrats would simply have wasted more money that the nation doesn’t have. If only on this issue, I’m glad they’re back to screaming at each other. Until then, let state governments manage their own infrastructure investment needs.
