Transportation

Let's Stop Calling It a $1.5 Trillion Infrastructure Plan

Between cuts to Fast Starts, Amtrak, and the Highway Trust Fund, infrastructure spending is in for a $40 to $75 billion net reduction over the next decade.
People get ready to protest U.S. President Donald Trump's recently unveiled infrastructure plan outside of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.Leah Millis/Reuters

Talking out of both sides of the mouth: That’s the best way to think about President Trump’s infrastructure policy.

In its infrastructure bill released on Monday, the White House proposed spending $200 billion in federal funds on a grab-bag of programs. But in its fiscal year 2019 budget request, which was also released on Monday, Team Trump lays out a remarkably austere path for roads, bridges, and especially transit systems, with as much as $275 billion in cuts to infrastructure programs.