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What Trump's Infrastructure Plan is Really About

Robert Reich explains why Trump's infrastructure plan is really a scam meant to benefit the wealthy and corporations.
By Peter Levine ·

President Donald Trump says has a plan to rebuild America's crumbling infrastructure. There's no question we need a major infrastructure upgrade. Decades of underfunding by elected officials has led to unsafe bridges, aging sewage systems and battered highways.

But Trump's plan is not the solution. In this video, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich explains what Trump's plan is really about.


According to Reich, Trump's plan is less about bringing back good-paying public sector jobs and more about fattening the wallets of private developers and Wall Street investors. By offering massive tax credits to big businesses, and having us – the taxpayers – foot a large chunk of the bill, Trump's grand strategy to repair America seems more like a corporate windfall.

What's more, Reich argues, these companies aren't interested in the smaller, less-profitable infrastructure jobs that our towns and cities so desperately need. They're more interested in the lucrative, mega-projects like thruways and airports, which rake in huge earnings.

As the Economist explains, these same private firms will probably then turn around and charge us hefty tolls to use their highways, their ports or their water systems.

Instead, the plan recently introduced by Senate Democrats offers a better solution, which is why AFSCME endorsed it. Broad-ranging in its goals, it's an infrastructure blueprint that places public workers front and center, not private interests.

AFSCME firmly believes that public infrastructure should remain in the hands of the public.

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