Sunday, September 17, 2017

The Insane $230 Billion Trump Infrastructure Plan That is Sitting in the Weeds

Dan Slane, has a $230 billion crony infrastructure plan
Gillian Tett reports for the Financial Times:
[T]ake a look at the story of Dan Slane, a former Trump adviser who has been knee-deep in those infrastructure weeds. Outside Ohio, not many people have heard of Mr Slane, who runs companies in Columbus with a big real estate focus. But he joined Mr Trump’s election campaign team last year, and after the election was given the task of creating a workable trillion-dollar infrastructure plan.

He spent several months consulting with trade unions, business leaders and state politicians. Then, in tandem with Boston Consulting Group and CG/LA Infrastructure, he identified 51  “shovel ready” projects. Some involved
desperately needed repairs to existing infrastructure, such as the locks and dams on the Ohio River in Kentucky and Illinois; others were new projects like high-speed rail in Texas and Florida, new subway lines in New York and 30-mile-long water tunnels in California...

And while the price tag was a hefty $230bn, Mr Slane proposed starting with 27 projects that were already planned out, in detail, and which could produce immediate revenues and thus attract private financing. “Every infrastructure fund in the world contacted me to get involved — Saudis and Chinese and others,” Mr Slane tells me. “Finding the money is the least of the problem.”
No kidding. What crony infrastructure firm wouldn't want to get in on this scam?

Think military-industrial-spook- complex when you think of Slane.

Slane was active duty for two years as a U.S. Army Captain in Military Intelligence; in addition he served for a number of years as a Case Officer with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. He also worked in The White House during the Ford Administration and is a commissioner on the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Note this is one very powerful Commission to be a member of. It was created by Congress with the legislative mandate to monitor, investigate, and submit to Congress an annual report on the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China.

He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Got the picture?

So what's the delay with Slane's plan? It appears it is crony Trump administration infighting and incompetence.
[S]ome friends of Mr Slane blame a turf war: Mr Cohn wanted to impose his own infrastructure agenda, based on public-private partnerships, of which Mr Slane is wary.
The other culprits were sheer incompetence and chaos. It seems that the president never convened any meetings to talk about Mr Slane’s ideas. Nor did anybody create a strategy plan.
But now the plan has found its way to Congress---and to Trump's new buddy Chuck Schumer:
Schumer, the wily Democrat senate leader who is passionate about infrastructure, seems ready to cut some bipartisan deals...
 Mr Slane is now trying to persuade Congress to embrace his 51 projects. Separately, Mr Cohn, Ms Chao and Steven Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, still claim that they will press ahead with their own plan when — or if — tax reform is laid to rest. Some of Mr Trump’s longstanding friends in the real estate world are offering advice on infrastructure, too. Almost everybody, it seems, agrees with Mr Slane that this is an eminently sensible idea.
Note: "eminently sensible idea" should be read "obscene crony profits---paid for by taxpayers."

It should be noted that the economist Walter Block has done valuable work detailing how these type projects identified by Slane can all be handled by the private sector, without any need for government involvement. See for example: Privatization Of Roads And Highways: Human And Economic Factors and Water Capitalism: The Case for Privatizing Oceans, Rivers, Lakes, and Aquifers

 -RW


2 comments:

  1. Trumpussolini is the new Swamp Thing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. “Every infrastructure fund in the world contacted me to get involved — Saudis and Chinese and others,” Mr Slane tells me. “Finding the money is the least of the problem.”

    Financial Times:
    Separately, Mr Cohn, Ms Chao and Steven Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, still claim that they will press ahead with their own plan when — or if — tax reform is laid to rest.

    At face value, Slane wants private funding, and Mnuchin et al have their own plans.

    Wenzel: What crony infrastructure firm wouldn't want to get in on this scam?

    To me, an "infrastructure fund" is different from a "crony infrastructure firm".

    Don't get me wrong. States should fund their own projects without grasping money from Congress. Otherwise, Slane seems to be in favor of more private solutions, and the cabinet is playing the usual game of skimming profits and favors from those projects. Or, is everyone here corrupt? How do we know that Slane is corrupt?

    ReplyDelete