Trump lacks infrastructure after pledging to build roads, bridges and a consensus

Business leaders and communities across the country are expressing concern over Washington's partisan stalemate that paralyzes efforts to reorganize the nation's aging and deteriorating infrastructure.

When millions of Americans hit the road for the Memorial Day weekend, they crossed aging bridges, crumbling roads and tunnels that required urgent repairs – an infrastructure that earned the D + in the latest report of the American Society of Civil Engineers.

At the same time, President Trump, who campaigned in 2016 touting his skills as a builder and negotiator, was unable to reach a major deal with Congress, further reducing hope. that the modernization of the country's roads, bridges and tunnels will bypass that of the capital. infamous traffic jam in a short time.

Trump, who repeatedly reiterated his intention to improve the country's infrastructure, abruptly withdrew from a meeting with leading Democrats on Wednesday and said there would be no "investment" so much that Congressional inquiries into his personal finances and administration would not have ceased. Democrats have accused Trump of failing to live up to the politics of previous presidents, whose names are associated with the country's most ambitious infrastructure projects.

The partisan stalemate – now immortalized as a joke on the endless "Infrastructure Week" of the White House – hides the growing and costly problem. In its 2017 report, the American Society of Civil Engineers estimated that it would be necessary to increase funding of $ 2 trillion over 10 years to fill the infrastructure gap.

"We can no longer afford to wait," said Tom Smith, executive director of the ASCE. "Our infrastructure problem will not go away, and it certainly will not improve over time."

Local leaders became frustrated with the political stalemate.

"It's exhausting," said MarySue Barrett, president of the Chicago-based Metropolitan Planning Council, a non-profit organization advocating sustainable regional development. "We are desperate in Illinois and Chicago to invest in infrastructure to revive our economy and are more than frustrated by the fact that the federal government is not our partner. "

Before things exploded, Democratic Democrats in Congress and Congress were optimistic about the prospects for an agreement not only to restore infrastructure, but also to bring broadband to rural areas. ;America.

[Amid oversight clash, Democrats pitch Trump on ‘big and bold’ infrastructure bill]

Last month, a group of enthusiastic Democrats, consisting of Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), And Leader of the Senate Minority, Charles E. Schumer (DN.Y.), came out of the White House to announce its agreement with Trump. a $ 2 trillion infrastructure package. The number – twice what Trump had proposed a year ago – quickly became a flashpoint, Republicans moving away and Democrats asked the White House to provide ideas on how to fund a project of such magnitude.

Some Republicans have seen an installation.

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, said earlier this month that the first meeting of Democrats with the president – in particular their decision to give Trump the burden of setting up a funding mechanism – betrayed their political motivations. . Any tax increase proposed by Trump to fund a $ 2 trillion infrastructure deal would be equivalent to "fingerprinting on the weapon of crime" that would be used to condemn Republicans in the next election, said Norquist.

"They think that they could trick the president into accepting a stimulus package that they would call an infrastructure." The president would then be stupid enough to be by their side while he was signing up. their bill, "he said. "The president would have simultaneously turned into George Herbert Walker Bush, he would have increased taxes on the middle class, he would have increased taxes on the American people and would have been crushed in the next elections."

Trump seemed to echo those views in an interview with Fox News host Steve Hilton, when he accused the Democrats of turning the infrastructure talks into "a bit of a game."

"What they want, is that I say," Well, we will raise taxes, and we will do this and this and that and that, "and they will hold a press conference." You see, Trump wants to raise taxes, "said Trump in an interview broadcast on May 19.

A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

The impasse between Trump and the Democrats underscores the president's difficulty navigating Washington's political waters and his inability to deliver on a key campaign promise with a bipartisan appeal, said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley.

"It's easy to say that you're going to work on bridges, highways and dams, but that's just words," he said. "To get things done, you have to go out and encourage public works projects – and this president does not know how to bring people together."

Using the metaphor of a two-lane road, Trump told reporters Wednesday that the Democrats he had just left had to choose between conducting investigations on his administration or legislative negotiations. Doing both, he said, was not an option.

"You can follow the path of inquiry and investment: make things happen for the American people," he told a hastily held press conference at Rose Garden.

[Trump angrily walks out of meeting with Democrats after Pelosi says he is ‘engaged in a coverup’]

For the moment, Democrats are continuing their monitoring efforts and the prospects for an infrastructure deal seem almost dead this year. Pelosi accused Trump of "anger" and publicly questioned his ability to "cope with the scale of the challenge".

"I can only think that it was not up to the task to make the difficult choice to cover the cost of the important infrastructure legislation we had talked about three weeks ago", a- she told the press Thursday.

Trump has been more comfortable fighting the Democrats than pleading for any plans to win support from both parties, Brinkley said. In addition to defining the broad themes of an infrastructure policy, the Trump administration has not yet deployed the sustained political efforts needed to translate the campaigner's election promise.

Democrats who thought that Trump's ambivalence about fiscal conservatism and his penchant for putting his name on real estate could make him more willing to support a major financial investment in new federal projects were disappointed.

"It's been two and a half years since that's happening, with no real movement in infrastructure, without real money investment," said Austin Mayor Steve Adler (D). "I do not know if it was just something the president was saying to be elected, but there was never any indication that there was anything there. "

Congress has also not demonstrated its ability to overcome decades-long struggles over funding for transportation improvements. The federal tax on gasoline and diesel fuel, the main source of revenue for infrastructure spending, has remained stable since 1993.

The President of the Chamber of Transport and Infrastructure, Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.) Has always wanted to tell a story by explaining why important legislation on infrastructure was so difficult to achieve: imagine a group of Hungry penguins at the South Pole, standing on a cliff Looking at a pond filled with fish, hesitating for hours, they watch leopard seals, dangerous predators, surround the water, he says.

"They knock down a guy, he does not eat, and they all jump," he said, comparing legislators to penguins and Washington interest groups to predators. "It's where we are: nobody wants to go first."

"We have to talk about real income, which means a form of taxation in a certain way," he added. "You can not do it with fairy dust."

As the Trump administration explored the idea of ​​increasing the gas tax, the Republican president's allies pushed back the prospect of new revenue. Steve Scalise (R-La.), A minority member of the House, said lawmakers "should go and see how we can move existing funds and assign them to higher priority areas."

Democrats have also been divided on where to find money, arguing that the rise in the tax on gasoline would have a disproportionate impact on lower income generators.

The US Chamber of Commerce has become a prominent center-right voice, calling for an increase in the gas tax – seeking to fight against the Norquist absolutists and reduced slaughter rate.

"People think that there are reasonable and bipartisan ways to pay for this, starting with increasing the gasoline tax for the first time in 26 years," said Neil Bradley, chief policy officer for Canada. House and former senior GOP advisor to Congress. "This would provide a very robust infrastructure bill this year."

The lack of progress in infrastructure could have an impact on the 2020 presidential race, which Trump plans to continue using the motto "Promises kept." Earlier this month, Trump promised a new highway bridge in Louisiana, operational the day after his reelection in November.

By failing to reach a bipartisan agreement, Trump has compromised his ability to pose as a political outsider who could break Washington's stalemate, Brinkley said.

"The only thing he had had during the election was that he said that" airports, highways and bridges are broken and that I am going to fix it, "said Brinkley." The great irony is that the president who has portrayed himself as a builder is unable to build anything. "

Rachael Bade and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.