David Ditch, Heritage Foundation transportation analyst, and Nick Loris, Heritage Foundation economist and Herbert and Joyce Morgan fellow, responding to news that President Donald Trump, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had agreed in principle to produce a legislative package to spend $2 trillion on infrastructure:

Americans deserve better roads, stronger bridges, modernized airports, and a more robust energy grid. Heritage has outlined ways to produce over $1 trillion in new infrastructure investment without tax increases or deficit spending.

 

Any infrastructure package must be fiscally responsible and include long-lasting regulatory reforms that allow projects to be completed in a timely manner. A fiscally responsible bill should have spending offsets to pay for new projects. In addition, it should narrow the federal role by eliminating funding for projects with purely local benefits, and wasteful projects such as bike paths and mass transit.

 

A massive, top-down, federally-funded approach to infrastructure is the wrong path to take and would likely result in poor investments that are not aligned with the day-to-day needs of Americans. Furthermore, unchecked spending only makes the federal debt crisis even worse.

 

The nation deserves better than yet another cash-grab that would increase the power of bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.