President Trump is turning his attention this week to the $1 trillion U.S. infrastructure overhaul he promised during his campaign. But Ohio鈥檚 Democratic U.S. senator says the details are looking a lot different than candidate Trump promised.
The White House won鈥檛 release its plan until next month, but some preliminary reports say the trillion-dollar program would actually mean $200 billion from the federal government with the rest coming from private investment, state and local funds 鈥� and requiring cuts in spending on other domestic programs.
Sen. Sherrod Brown says even $200 billion may be optimistic given the massive tax cuts GOP lawmakers plan to get through Congress this week.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to blow a hole in the budget deficit, another trillion or trillion and a half dollars. I don鈥檛 know where the money鈥檚 going to come from to do the infrastructure the president talks about; you can鈥檛 toll every bridge and highway and water and sewer system and every broadband expansion and everything else. You鈥檝e got to have real dollars to do it.鈥�
Brown also says local and state governments are already strapped and would have trouble coming up with their share. Politico reported last week that local projects would have to compete for the federal money by showing they鈥檙e prepared to contribute.
