http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/01/opinion/trump-infrastructure-plans-fatal-flaw.html 2016-10-01 03:58:35 Trump Infrastructure Plan’s Fatal Flaw The Republican nominee has proposed, in effect, to cut spending on infrastructure as part of his plan to borrow for spending on infrastructure. === Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump agree that the nation’s roads, bridges and other infrastructure need an expensive overhaul. But voters should not assume that the candidates are equally capable of delivering results. The ability of any president to carry out a plan for repairs and new projects costing hundreds of billions of dollars depends on how the plan meshes with the administration’s other tax and spending proposals. An infrastructure overhaul cannot be done in isolation. Mrs. Clinton’s approach has a shot at doing some good; Donald Trump’s approach would be fiscally untenable. Mrs. Clinton Donald Trump, by contrast, For starters, the centerpiece of his economic plan is a huge tax cut for the wealthy. The proposed cuts would reduce revenue by $4.4 trillion to $5.9 trillion over 10 years, according to a preliminary analysis of the plan’s latest version Of course, Mr. Trump claims that his tax cuts would largely pay for themselves by unleashing economic growth of 4 percent annually. That goal is well above the roughly 2 percent to 3 percent average of the past 50 years and, even under the rosiest assumptions, would be achievable only by increasing the labor force through more immigration, which Mr. Trump clearly opposes. To avoid the large deficits that would result from the combination of tax cuts and more borrowing, Mr. Trump would have to make brutal spending cuts in other areas of the budget. Another problem is that enormous borrowing could attract foreign investors to American debt. The downside would be a stronger dollar that would make American exports less attractive, thereby increasing the trade deficit — precisely what Mr. Trump has been railing against. So far, Mr. Trump There’s an indisputable need for investment in America’s aging infrastructure. Only Mrs. Clinton has a realistic plan for doing anything about it.