Can Biden's Infrastructure Plan Happen?
Can Biden's Infrastructure Plan Happen?
The outpouring of enthusiasm for President Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure plan, like desert flowers after a rainstorm, shows how parched the public landscape is. Just imagine it: Power lines that don't get knocked down after every storm, roads without potholes and twisted guardrails, broadband in rural communities, new rail lines and tunnels to alleviate bottlenecks in urban areas, and even a serious plan to address climate change.
But something is missing. How does government actually deliver these ambitious goals? Observers already hear the hooves pounding towards the trough, without any trusted mechanism to avoid projects like the "bridge to nowhere." And how do we avoid permitting delays of upwards of a decade? The absence of any "shovel-ready projects" is what stymied the 2009 stimulus. Finally, who will prevent featherbedding and other unconscionable public contracting practices that can double or triple the cost of infrastructure projects?
These questions must be answered, because the first blush of enthusiasm will soon be tempered by debates over how to pay for all this. There will be no surer path for defeat than to expose the many ways the $2 trillion will be wasted in delays, inefficiencies, and pork barrel projects.
What's needed to transform the hope of modern infrastructure into reality, I argue in Sunday's New York Daily News (also available here as a pdf), is a nonpartisan infrastructure board charged with overseeing priorities, permitting, and contracting. Public trust is vital to getting a plan enacted and in implementing it sensibly. An independent National Infrastructure Board could serve that vital role, similar to base-closing commissions that make politically-difficult decisions on which unnecessary defense facilities to shut down.
The parties argue about goals, when many of Americans' needs and frustrations can be met only by fixing how government delivers on its promises. Visit our platform to see the straightforward changes needed to restore common sense to public goals. We are trying to build a movement, so please forward this to friends and colleagues, or contact us for other ways to help.
In Friday's Daily Caller, Charles Kolb argues that Biden's infrastructure proposal is likely to suffer the same fate as the 2009 stimulus and explicitly recommends Common Good's proposal for a National Infrastructure Board.
In a Wall Street Journal column, "It Takes Lots of Permits to Save the Planet," Mario Loyola of the Competitive Enterprise Institute echoes the findings and recommendations of Common Good's report "Two Years, Not Ten Years" — to empower officials to enforce review and deadlines, as countries such as Germany and Australia do.