First, I apologize for my 3rd post in one day. I usually don’t write this many in a week.
I’m seeing clear indications the Republicans in the Executive branch and in the House want to do infrastructure spending on the order of $3 Trillion dollars. Nobody truly knows how much spending is needed, but that’s a fine starting point.
So far the law says domestic spending has to be matched by military/defense spending and most members of Congress want about $50 Billion / year for 10 years ($500 Billion total). That means there would/could also be $500 Billion of military/defense spending for a total of $1 Trillion.
So, how do we get to the $3 Trillion on infrastructure without just throwing money at the military/defense sector? The answer is a favorite of Donald Trump — LEVERAGE. If we can create bonds with both federal and state/local dollars we can get a bigger bang for the buck on infrastructure and still keep the federal outlay within the desired range ($500 Billion — $600 Billion). Fortunately such bonds (or at least the idea for them) already exist: Building America Bonds created during the recession in the ARRA law signed by Pres. Obama. That law expired in 2010, but the concept and legislation to create them can easily be recreated/renewed in a stronger and perhaps more flexible form. Also see "Federal Municipal Bond Marketing Support and Securitization Act of 2009".
We can rebuild it, faster, stronger, etc. etc. etc.