Trump’s $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill
By: Ryan Wagner
One of Donald Trump’s major political goals is to reduce unemployment and create jobs within our economy. He recognizes that a decent majority of our country’s infrastructure is outdated, damaged, or destroyed, and he intends to do something about it. Recently, Trump asked Congress for a $1 trillion dollar infrastructure bill to launch national rebuilding. He notes that the United States has spent $6 trillion in government spending in the Middle East, and he contemplates why a sixth of this money can’t be dedicated to infrastructure improvement. This is a little confusing, seeing as much of Trump’s focus is on the termination of Isis, who just happens to be situated in the Middle East. Nevertheless, Trump looks to push Congress towards passing this bill in order to rebuild our nation.
It is difficult to take a political stance but from an economical standpoint, Trump should focus government spending on a specific action. As of right now, the United States is spending $6 trillion dollars in the Middle East and Isis is still inducing casualties on innocent people. Why not focus our efforts on the Middle East until Isis is officially demolished, and then shift our operation towards national rebuilding? It may cause a budget surplus to occur, which will increase national savings. There is an extremely high opportunity cost on both sides of the spectrum, and possibilities are lost no matter what President Trump decides to pursue. All in all, Trump is under a great deal of pressure to Make America Great Again, and he should do what’s best for the country in order to reach allocative efficiency. I personally believe that this infrastructure bill he is eager to pass should wait until other, ongoing political goals are met.
Works Cited
"Trump: I Will Ask Congress for a $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill." CNN. Cable News Network, 28 Feb. 2017. Web. 01 Mar. 2017.
The plan to completely rebuild all major roads and build many roads is a very daring task. The costs of this would be extremely high as mentioned above but would this help the economy as a whole. Its impact would depend on businesses taking advantage of these rebuilt
ReplyDeleteroad systems to grow their businesses. Trump making so many actions in such a short time will have unforeseen affects on the future.
In all, I do agree with President Trump's eager plan to rebuild America's crumbling infrastructure. It is a plan that both parties can find common ground on. However, ISIS is a major problem and if the US doesn't take immediate action on a large scale, millions of innocent civilians would be killed. In my opinion, we should team up with Russia to defeat this common enemy. It would make the war shorter and save the US lots of money. With this money saved, the US would be able to put large amounts of funding towards problems like crumbling infrastructure.
ReplyDeleteTrump is being very daring with his plan to regrow the American infrastructure system. It has been and still is vital to the American economy and a major piece of American history, with the American highway system being one of the prides of American engineering. Without the spending on infrastructure there will be major lapses in the economy that we cannot afford, and I feel that it is very important what President Trump is doing, even more important than defeating ISIS. We need to work with our allies to defeat ISIS, but we must not lose sight on important domestic tasks as well, such as American infrastructure.
ReplyDeleteIn my eyes, Donald Trump is highly concerned with the glorification of the Trump name, which is why he slaps his name in large text on towering sky scrapers. This public works project and the border wall are more ways for Trump to leave a legacy or structure with his name tied to it. That is not to suggest that these projects will negatively effect the US, but a main motivator from Donald's perspective is the glorification of his name.
ReplyDeleteIt is very important with looking at our future and understanding how helping the infrastructure could help the future of America. Many when looking at Trumps campaign were focused on the fact that he will be working to stop ISIS, however dealing with out own domestic issues is a huge part of setting ourselves up for correctly being able to handle domestic issues, then we will be able to better handle the foreign terrorist issues.
ReplyDeleteDefeating ISIS is easier said than done. Asking for a trillion dollars is also easier said than done. I totally agree with Michael H's comment with Trump trying to glorify his name. I feel as if this whole ridiculous Presidency is just him trying to glorify himself, when it's done majorly more bad than good. Going into the topic of your blog post, Trump asking for that much money to me is pretty ridiculous. Just because other countries can afford to use trillions of dollars for government spending doesn't necessarily mean we can or we even should. It would only increase our national debt. Also, Trump is severely rich so I don't think he truly understand how much money he's asking for here. The situation with ISIS is something I truly believe we should be focusing on, however we shouldn't be putting our country in more danger or financial decline in order to do it. The safety and well being of our country is a top priority in my eyes. Besides, Trump has already many problems from his involvement with Russia, his ridiculous bans, and his discrimination with new policies he needs to get sorted out first.
ReplyDeleteOverall I do agree with Trump on rebuilding the infrastructure in America just like FDR did with the New Deal, his attend on making new jobs just like Trump wants too. But, with that he has to make a high opportunity cost on the Middle East in my eyes we should help our self's first until the ISIS problem is over because whats the point in building if its going to be taken over. So if they invest in destroying ISIS for good and establishing a stable government for Iraq, Syria, etc.. then we can help build up the Middle East of course.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that Trump is right that we are focusing too much on the Middle East than back home in America but over the years we have been seeing improvement in the Middle East. I would spend less money on the Middle East and more on problems in America but still spend some money because we can see change in the Middle East. Also what would Trump do if this bill is passed? What he use this new money on? The opportunity cost of whether to spend money on the Middle East or back home in America.
ReplyDeleteI don't see the point in increasing government spending at this point in the business cycle. We're in the expansion phase and any additional spending would just be adding gasoline to the fire. In addition, this spending may increase inflation which might prompt the Fed to increase interest rates. An increase in inflation and interest rates would not be good for the economy. We should wait for a recession to increase government spending.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with Trump on how we do eventually have to strengthen our infrastructure system. It will help improve our economy as a whole and individual citizens. I also agree with what you stated in your article that we should focus on one thing at a time. I believe that we should continue our main focus on Isis instead of the infrastructure system. Isis is doing more damage to America compared to how bad our infrastructure system is. We should keep one idea at a time instead of jumping all over and get one thing done right and in a timely manner so that we can start improving the system faster.
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