President-elect Donald Trump's plan to overhaul the country's infrastructure is not equatable to liberal stimulus packages supported by Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, according to conservative radio host and lawyer Edward Woodson.
"Clinton and Obama's spending proposals were marred by a Keynesian belief that government spending would magically create jobs," wrote the host of "The Edward Woodson Show" in The Hill. "Trump's proposal is different. A critical component of the Trump plan is private investment."
Woodson quotes the Reason Foundation's Bob Poole, a libertarian economist, who claims that Trump's plan will treat infrastructure like a public utility.
"People get their highway bill every month like they get their electric bill and water bill," Poole told Reason. "They're paying for what they use and only what they use. They're not subsidizing a whole bunch of other projects that they never see."
"The biggest difference between Trump's stimulus and those of his liberal predecessors is the intent," Woodson writes. "President Trump is trying to repair infrastructure to Make America Great Again, not to create 'shovel-ready jobs' like some Keynesian fantasy."
"When stimulus money is spent for the purpose of increasing government spending to generate a government bubble of economic activity, it is destined to become a quick failure that saddles the country with long-term debt. However, when the purpose of the money is to build up infrastructure through the private sector (financed almost entirely through tax breaks), then it is another story.
"The Trump stimulus marks a pivot from bureaucracies toward transactions," Woodson continues. "Private companies will not only independently pay for and build the internal improvements, but also own them. The personal ownership and equity stake of these institutions will ensure that they are always well-maintained and profitable.
"Unlike the Clinton and Obama stimulus plans, the Trump plan will not cost taxpayers a penny. With its $167 billion raised from private investment, the costs of the plan will be entirely offset by new revenue generated from the economic stimulus."