{"id":500241,"date":"2016-10-12T09:27:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-12T09:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/?p=500241"},"modified":"2020-10-26T14:17:08","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T14:17:08","slug":"clinton-and-trump-the-race-for-infrastructure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/reportage\/clinton-and-trump-the-race-for-infrastructure.html","title":{"rendered":"Public works and the US Presidency"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"img602x343\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There is one thing agreed on by the two candidates for the American presidential elections on 8 November, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump: America\u2019s roads, bridges and railways are not in good condition, and that calls for a New Deal on infrastructure.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Democratic candidate has proposed a<\/strong> federal government investment of $275 billion over five years, with a further 225 billion in loans<\/strong>, through the creation of a national bank for infrastructure. Hillary Clinton has also given assurances that the measure will be put to Congress within the first 100 days of her arrival at the White House. Where will the money come from? \u201cFiscal labour reforms,\u201d which will free up more resources for the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donald Trump has also announced a swathe of infrastructure measures<\/strong>, claiming that Clinton\u2019s proposed funding will not be enough and that there is a need to think big: \u00abHer number is a fraction of what we\u2019re talking about. We need much more money to rebuild our infrastructure,\u00bb the nominee of the party of limited government said last week in an interview on the Fox Business Network. \u00abI would say at least double her numbers, and you\u2019re going to really need a lot more than that.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump<\/strong> calculates that $1 trillion should be invested over the next five years, with no direct investment from the federal government<\/strong> but through a series of loans, and a fund: \u00abThe people should be putting money into this fund, it\u2019s an excellent investment and it would create jobs for many people,\u00bb said Trump. \u00abWe will have the money we need. We\u2019ll do a phenomenal agreement with lower interest rates,\u00bb added the billionaire, concluding that \u00abThe cash will also come from government bonds, US bonds.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00abWe need to build the next generation of roads, bridges, railways, tunnels, ports and airports,\u00bb he announced when presenting his plan in Detroit, a city that symbolises the decline and rebirth of the USA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a very hot topic, and one that has been broached by both candidates since the race for the White House began<\/strong>. The first to denounce the poor state of America\u2019s infrastructure networks was Clinton, during a speech given in Boston in 2015, when she outlined her plan for recovery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00abI don\u2019t have to tell you what a sorry state we\u2019re in,\u00bb Clinton said. \u00abOur roads and bridges are potholed and crumbling. Families endure blackouts because our electric grid fails in extreme weather. Beneath our cities, our pipeline infrastructure\u2014our water, our sewer, you name it\u2014is up to a century or more old. Our airports are a mess. Our ports need improvement. Our rail systems do as well.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Newark
Newark Harbour<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Clinton announced that her intervention plan will run alongside the programme approved by President Barack Obama<\/strong>: the last budget approved by Congress earmarked $305 billion over five years, to fund bridges, roads and rail networks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a vital commitment, as Obama has emphasised several times over the past four years, and one that will enable the USA to continue to grow: \u00abA country that looks to the future needs modern infrastructure that works. Ours is falling to pieces\u00bb the President has said several times, reminding people that \u00abthe alternative is to do nothing, and to stand and watch while jobs and businesses go to countries with outstanding infrastructure. First-rate employment needs first-rate infrastructure, fit for the 21st century.\u00bb<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The jobs issue<\/strong> is another question on which both candidates have proclaimed their opinions on several occasions. Hillary\u2019s calculations<\/strong>, based on research done by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, show that every billion dollars invested in infrastructure creates 13,000 jobs<\/strong>.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent study published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) makes a convincing case that \u201cthe time is right for a strong infrastructure push\u201d in advanced economies such as the United States. While infrastructure is critical for economic efficiency and growth, the private sector often fails to make sufficient investment in infrastructure for several reasons, such as positive externalities, large start-up costs, and economies of scale. Thus, in many cases, the public sector can provide infrastructure more efficiently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reality, it was the American Society of Civil Engineers that raised the alarm on the deplorable condition of America\u2019s infrastructure: without immediate investment, says the ASCE, the United States risks losing 4,000 billion dollars by 2025, due to its defective infrastructure networks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The solution? The ASCE believes that $3.6 trillion should be invested by 2020 \u2013 a sum much higher than the one proposed by both presidential candidates<\/strong>. The ASCE has given the United States\u2019 infrastructure network a rating of D+ – very low, in other words -, saying that there has been no intervention for too long. 
The World Bank has also added to the concerns, ranking America in sixteenth place for the condition of its infrastructure, compared to the other advanced economies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The USA\u2019s last major infrastructure plan dates back almost 40 years<\/strong>. In 1982, the then president, Ronald Reagan, authorised a redevelopment programme for the country\u2019s roads and railways, with a motto that is often quoted by other politicians: \u00abInfrastructure represents a critical investment in tomorrow that we must make today.\u00bb<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is one thing agreed on by the two candidates for the American presidential elections on 8 November, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump: America\u2019s roads, bridges and railways are not in good condition, and that calls for a New Deal on infrastructure. The Democratic candidate has proposed a federal government investment of $275 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":117244,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[19004,19013],"yst_prominent_words":[18387,14845,941,5453,4208,15027,2540,811,15986,17065,416,655,1328],"class_list":["post-500241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reportage","tag-development-and-growth","tag-north-and-south-america"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500241"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":542557,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500241\/revisions\/542557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500241"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.webuildvalue.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=500241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}