DONALD Trump has launched a “big week” for his long-awaited infrastructure plan, setting out $1.5 trillion (£1.08trn) of spending over the next decade.
The plan would fulfil some of Trump’s campaign goals, but would rely heavily on state and local government for much of the funding.
The American president said on Twitter that it would be “a big week for Infrastructure. After so stupidly spending 7 trillion dollars in the Middle East, it is now time to start investing in OUR Country!”
The administration’s plan is centred on a $200 billion (£144bn) federal funds boost to leverage local and state tax dollars to fix US infrastructure, such as roads, highways, ports and airports.
The measure projects a $1trn (£0.72trn) federal deficit and - unlike the plan Trump released last year - it does not come close to promising a balanced federal ledger, even after 10 years.
This is before last week’s $300billion (£216bn) budget pact is added this year and next, showering both the Pentagon and domestic agencies with big spending increases.
The spending spree, along with last year’s tax cuts, has the deficit moving sharply upwards with Republicans in control of Washington.
The original plan was for Trump’s new budget to slash domestic agencies even further than last year’s proposal.
Instead, it will land in US congress three days after he signed a two-year spending agreement that wholly rewrites both last year’s budget and the one to be released on Monday.
The 2019 budget was originally designed to double down on last year’s proposals to slash foreign aid, funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, home heating assistance and other non-defence programmes funded by US Congress each year.
Jason Furman, a top economic adviser to former president Barack Obama, said: “A lot of presidents’ budgets are ignored. But I would expect this one to be completely irrelevant and totally ignored.
“In fact, Congress passed a law week that basically undid the budget before it was even submitted.”
Trump will request $23bn (£16.6bn) for border security, including $18bn (£13bn) for a wall along the US-Mexico border. Money for more detention beds for detained immigrants is also part of the budget.
The administration will also ask for a $13bn (£9.39bn) increase over two years for opioid prevention, treatment and long-term recovery.
Trump would again spare social security retirement benefits and Medicare as he promised during the 2016 campaign.
And while his plan would reprise last year’s attempt to scuttle the “Obamacare” health law and sharply cut back the Medicaid programme for the elderly, poor and disabled, the president’s allies on Capitol Hill have signalled that there is no interest in tackling hot-button health issues during an election year.
Instead, the new budget deal and last year’s tax cuts herald the return of trillion dollar-plus deficits. Last year, Trump’s budget predicted a $526bn budget deficit for the 2019 fiscal year, starting on October 1.
Instead, it is set to easily exceed $1trn once the cost of the new spending pact and the tax cuts are added to Congressional Budget Office projections.
The president has repeatedly blamed the “crumbling” state of the nation’s roads and highways for preventing the American economy from reaching its full potential.
Half of the new budget would go to grants for transportation, water, flood control, and clean-up at some of the country’s most polluted sites.
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