Chuck Schumer says Democrats will gladly work with President Donald Trump on any infrastructure plan that is directly funded by the federal government, the Senate Minority Leader wrote in a column for The Washington Post.
However, if the president "caves to the hard right" and instead proposes a private or state and local-funded infrastructure strategy during his first State of the Union address Tuesday night, then all he'll have is a fight.
"Only a plan with direct investments can properly address the scale of the challenge we face. Direct investment provides support for both new projects and ongoing ones," Schumer wrote in the Post.
"Unfortunately, initial indications are that the president's proposal will rely on capital from private companies or states and localities in lieu of real investment," Schumer wrote.
Schumer says that's a flawed approach, saying rural America will suffer; local governments won't be able to afford big projects and small towns won't have enough traffic to attract private investment.
Instead, private investors will focus on big projects that generate tolls as a return on investment, Schumer writes.
"Our nation's roads, bridges and tunnels would become tools for wealthy investors to profit off the middle class rather than the job-creating public assets they ought to be," Schumer wrote.
Schumer blames conservatives for pushing Trump toward privatizing infrastructure.
"Hard-right special interests, which have dictated much of the policy in the Trump administration, have the president in a vise," Schumer writes. "They hate spending any government money, even on something as time-honored as infrastructure, and they apply pressure not to increase the deficit."
Schumer is calling on Trump to renew his campaign pledge to invest $1 trillion on an infrastructure plan.
"We Democrats will gladly work with him on it. But if he caves to the hard right once again and proposes a scheme driven by private developers — a scheme that leaves out rural America and asks middle-class families to shoulder the costs — he'll have squandered an immense opportunity," Schumer wrote.
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