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Trump’s Infrastructure Idea

August 5, 2016

By Chris Edwards

Donald Trump is a competitive person. He likes to have bigger things than other people. He says that he has really big hands. His tax cut was larger than the other GOP candidates. And now he says that his infrastructure plan will be double the size of Hillary Clinton’s.

The problem is, with the federal government, smaller is almost always better than bigger. That’s the message of this fashionable Cato T-shirt, which, by the way, would go nicely with Donald’s Make America Great hat. So for the Trump campaign, I’ll put aside a really big T-shirt for Donald, while a medium would look great on Melania.

With regard to infrastructure, I describe why the federal government ought to reduce its role in this essay. There are few, if any, advantages of federal involvement, and many disadvantages, including bureaucracy, pork barrel, misallocation, cost overruns, and regulation.

State and local governments can raise money for their own highways, bridges, seaports, and airports anytime they want to. Indeed, about half the states have raised their gas taxes to fund transportation infrastructure in just the past four years. There’s no need for more federal taxes or debt, as Trump is proposing.

Read the full article at the Cato Institute: Trump’s Infrastructure Idea

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