President Donald Trump on Monday unveiled an ambitious proposal to renew American infrastructure, in a plan he said was a shift focus back to domestic priorities after years of war. The new infrastructure initiative includes $200 billion in public funds, which aims to spur another $1.3 trillion contributions from states and private investors to update US roads, bridges and airports which Trump has described as crumbling.
"This will be a big week for Infrastructure," Trump said on Twitter Monday. "After so stupidly spending $7 trillion in the Middle East, it is now time to start investing in OUR Country!"
Administration officials tout the plan as a shift back to national priorities, with $50 billion dedicated to modernizing infrastructure in rural areas, many of which favored Trump in the 2016 elections. It also aims to eliminate bureaucratic barriers to construction such as environmental safety reviews and the need for authorizations from more than one agency, the White House said.
The plan includes $100 billion for an incentives program "to spur additional dedicated funds from States, localities, and the private sector." Also Monday, the administration due to begin the tortuous process of setting the 2019 federal budget, even as recent tax cuts and spending commitments threaten to balloon US debt.
The latest iteration of Trump's fiscal policy will drop the long-held Republican goal of balancing the federal budget within a decade, The Washington Post reported. It will now be up to Congress to debate the infrastructure proposal and the budget. Trump is expected to host lawmakers from both major parties at the White House this week to discuss the competing priorities.
The spending plans are sure to raise the hackles of deficit hawks who question how the government can justify such ambitious projects while cutting taxes and with exploding deficits on the near horizon. But White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, a former Republican lawmaker long aligned with the Tea Party movement for fiscal restraint, said the budget blueprints demonstrated responsible management.