Thursday, January 30, 2020

House Democrats' $760 Billion Infrastructure Proposal Has Lots of Funding Proposals, Few Proposed Funding Sources

Today, House Democrats released a new $760 billion infrastructure proposal that is heavy on funding ideas, but light on funding sources.

On balance, the proposal is not as bad as some free marketers might have feared, says Baruch Feigenbaum, a transportation policy analyst for the Reason Foundation, which publishes Reason.

It's certainly cheaper than the $2 trillion infrastructure proposal President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer were discussing last summer.

In addition to the highway and transit portions, the House Democrats' proposal calls for $55 billion in order to expand passenger rail service.

Airports would get another $30 billion in funding under today's proposal, which also calls for raising the cap on Passenger Facility Charges and indexing them to inflation.

There are also more partisan line-items in House Democrats' infrastructure proposal, including a lot of things that really stretch the definition of infrastructure.

Some $80 billion of the proposal would be devoted to expanding the country's high-speed broadband network.

https://reason.com/2020/01/29/house-democrats-760-billion-infrastructure-proposal-has-lots-of-funding-proposals-few-proposed-funding-sources/

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