Where do you get the 1.5T of infrastructure from? The plan is only calling for $200B, with the rest apparently coming from private development (i.e. toll roads) when environmental restrictions are relaxed. And that doesn't include any money for the highways trust fund, which is due to go broke in ~3 years. Do you really want to bet on 1.3T of magic money suddenly appearing?

I dont care - it was referenced in a live update.

the point was more that they were a couple of quite lefty policies, rather than the specifics of the numbers

Infrastructure spending is the ultimate income redistribution. Collect tax money and use it to build stuff which creates jobs and pays skilled and unskilled laborers. And we all benefit from having better infrastructure. It’s a watered down FDR way of thinking. Dems should love it. But they won’t cuz ....... Trump

Dems don't love it because it simply isn't going to happen as advertised. Ignoring the $1.5T, where is the $200B coming from? A republican congress?

Dems won't love it or anything else that will make Trump or the Repubs look good between now and the 18 midterms and then again leading into 2020. There is no way they will compromise on a immigration solution either -- they're not giving up that issue before this next election, if ever. The whole thing has become about power and winning elections to achieve the majority instead of governing and doing what's best for the country. And both sides are equally guilty of that, it's just that the Dems are in the minority now so they are the current party of NO. It's disgusting.

that was my point

It's not infrastructure spending, in reality. It's a small amount of federal spending, in the hopes of getting private investment for the rest. Of course, the only way to get private investment in infrastructure is to give the private interests a return on their money. Sewers and dams don't do that, but giving toll roads and the like do. So we privatize, which doesn't actually save anyone any money (in fact, it will end up costing taxpayers more money).

It's all smoke and mirrors that folks like you buy into without thinking about reality.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

i mostly agree - i'm an infrastructure fan, and the US needs more of it. but: i think there's better and worse infrastructure. throwing billions at the border wall, for instance, feels like money stupidly spent.

-mike

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Mexico. The money will come from Mexico.

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Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's

They did comprise on immigration. Twice. Trump reneged. Twice.

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“Read the transcript.”

I hear ya. I don't have strong feeling about the wall one way or the other. It'd create a lot of jobs though. Id rather build a wall than spend that money on foreign aid to countries who don't support us. I know that won't fund it entirely, but it's a start.

Sorry dude, but you are full of it...show me the bill that arrived on his desk that he didn't sign.

At the end of the day in order to get something better no one will get what they want.

So your definition of reneging is limited to a veto?

There was no veto because there was nothing voted on because there was no bill; therefore POTUS couldn't have reneged on anything.

What did you call it when Schumer said funding for the wall was no longer on the table? The Dems are not going to let the wall be built and they are going to push for a path to citizenship/amnesty so broad that they know there's no way the Repubs will agree to it, all to be able to say in the next campaign that the Repubs don't care about the Dreamers. It's all a fricking game to them. Both sides. Don't think that because I'm picking on the Dems here that I don't detest the Repubs equally for playing the same stupid games (they just made the Senate vote on an abortion bill that had zero chance of passing so they can say Dems kill babies in the midterms).

disagree on two fronts.

first, if you spent the wall $ on, say, highways or fiber optic cables, lots of people could get benefit from that (quality of life for individuals and possibly a value-add for business). the wall creates the same amount of short-term jobs but benefits nobody. it's a bridge to nowhere.

and foreign aid given by the USA is usually so chock-full of conditions that it benefits american business a lot. i also think in 2016 the 'aid' budget was ~40 billion, so it's a bit of a strawman in the context of a putative 1.5 trillion in infrastructure spending.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

I hear you, we could spend the money on other stuff. I don't want this to be about the wall. I'd rather have that than $21 billion (its estimate) in foreign aid but you're right that that expense is but a fraction of what Trump asked for last night.