Polls: People Don’t Know Trump’s Infrastructure Plan Is a Scam
Polls show that the public likes President Trump’s plan to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure. That’s because they think he actually plans to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure. He doesn’t. Not hardly. Not by a long shot. In fact…
Infrastructure Spending Is Popular
Polls show the public really likes it when Trump says he plans to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure.
Gallup: Trump Family Leave, Infrastructure Proposals Widely Popular,
Americans are far more likely to agree than disagree with President Donald Trump’s proposals to require companies to provide family leave for parents of a newborn and to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure.
CNN: CNN/ORC poll: Most back boost in infrastructure spending, oppose growing military budget,
Trump’s most popular budget proposals include reducing taxes for middle-class Americans (84% approve) and increasing spending on infrastructure (79% approve).
So the public wants our government to spend money fixing up our infrastructure. But we have a Republican Congress, which has spent the last 8 years filibustering every attempt to allocate money to do just that. They say any “government spending’ is bad, even though in a true democracy, that’s how government makes our lives better.
So what are they really up to?
The Reality
The reality is that Trump’s budget cuts infrastructure spending, as I explained back in March:
Trump’s budget guts transportation infrastructure funding, eliminating funding for many popular programs like mass transit funding for cities, Amtrak long-distance trains, and rural air service. It forces privatization of the Air Traffic Control system… Trump’s budget doesn’t help get you from here to there.
Confirmed at CNN: Trump has promised big spending on infrastructure. His budget cuts it.
The Even Worse Reality
What Trump is really planning is mass-privatization of our infrastructure. Instead of We the People building infrastructure that we all get to use, Trump’s plan is to make We the People pay corporations to take over our infrastructure, and then they charge us to use it. And then maybe drag us off our roads, like United Airlines dragging ticketed, seated passengers off of planes.
Here’s the scoop, from Trump’s Infrastructure ‘Plan’ Is Really Just A Privatization Scam,
Trump’s plan does not call for public investment in public infrastructure, nor does it call for hiring local construction companies using American suppliers and creating jobs for American union workers. Trump’s plan is for the government to spend money giving tax breaks to giant, multinational corporations and calling it infrastructure investment.
Trump knows the public wants infrastructure, so he promises it. Just like all the other things he promised and went back on after the election. Jut like all the contractors he stiffed, and the students at Trump University. It’s just another Trump con.
Those Other Popular Items Are Scams, Too
Trump’s promised family leave and middle-class tax cut are popular, too. They are also scams.
Trump’s child care plan is gift to the rich, according to the Tax Policy Center:
The tax experts at TPC say 70% of the benefits will go to families that make $100,000 or more. And 25% will go to people earning $200,000 or more.
… That sounds great, but families have to pay income taxes to Uncle Sam in order to take advantage of the deduction. Many working class families pay nothing in federal income taxes because they earn too little in income to owe anything.
Middle-class tax cut? There is no “middle class tax cut.” Trump is proposing to cut taxes for the rich and corporations. Or to keep it simple, “the rich.”
The AP fact-checked Trump’s ‘massive’ tax cut for middle class, and found the richest one percent would get more than two hundred times more money back than the middle one-fifth of the population. Tony Nitti at Forbes, concurs. So does Christopher Faricy writing for the Washington Post.
And the Intercept’s David Dayen does us the favor of pointing out that On His First Day in Office, Trump Raises Taxes on Middle-Class Homebuyers.
Just One More Scam
Oh, and that “armada” Trump said he was sending to the waters off North Korea? It wasn’t.
He promised a middle class tax cut; it isn’t. He promised paid family leave; it isn’t. He promised us a trillion dollars for infrastructure; it isn’t. it’s just one more scam Trump hopes will trick the public.
Don’t fall for it – it is not what he promised us for infrastructure, not by a long shot.
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Reposted from Our Future.
