Claim
Soon after a bipartisan group of lawmakers finally passed President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion bill to improve and rebuild the country’s aging infrastructure, Donald Trump’s office issue a statement 13 Republican lawmakers who condemned the legislation and helped it cross the finish line.
“It’s very sad that the RINOs and Senate To Biden and Democratic Party The victory of the’non-infrastructure’ bill,” read the statement issued on Sunday. “Only 11% of the wasted funds are spent on real infrastructure.
Although the former president did not provide any sources for this review, the statement and similar sentiments have been widely shared and quoted on social media, including Twitter with Facebook.
fact
Although it is unclear how Trump reached 11% or what criteria he used to define “real infrastructure”, this statement seems to reinvigorate the views that conservative politicians and public figures made as early as April , Which is focused on BidenThe initial $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan.
The claim has been repeated many times.One of them comes from Russell Vought, former director of the Office of Management and Budget, who told Fox News On April 1, “Of the $2 trillion in the bill, only about 5% to 7% were actual roads, bridges, ports, and things you and I would say are real infrastructure.” But this statement In fact, it boils down to the argument that most of the expenditure will not be allocated to “traditional” infrastructure projects.
These arguments are mainly based on a very specific definition of “public infrastructure”, targeting the broader elements of the original $2.3 trillion proposal contained under the umbrella of “infrastructure.” Even with a narrow definition, independent fact-checking assesses these arguments as inaccurate or misleading.Trump’s 11% figure-the increase more reflects the significantly streamlined final version of the bill Congress-Doubtful for similar reasons.
The 2,702-page bipartisan bill was summarized in a fact sheet issued by the White House. In addition to the funds allocated for various infrastructure projects each year, it also includes $550 billion in new expenditures. The total funding for roads and bridges (US$110 billion), railways (US$66 billion), airports (US$25 billion), and ports (US$17 billion) alone amounted to US$218 billion, accounting for more than 18% of total expenditures during the 10-year period— -Significantly higher than the 11% touted by Trump.
The additional US$240 billion will be used to upgrade and improve the National Grid (US$73 billion), water infrastructure (US$55 billion, plus another US$8 billion to deal with the continuing drought in the west), public transportation systems ( 39 billion U.S. dollars) and broadband (65 billion U.S. dollars). In the past, all of this usually fell under the umbrella of “public infrastructure” and increased the share of “actual infrastructure” to at least 38%.
Add more controversial elements, which can be said to belong to a looser definition of public infrastructure-such as enhanced security ($11 billion), electric vehicle charging stations ($7.5 billion), and electric school buses ($7.5 billion), and US$47 billion is spent on cybersecurity and climate change mitigation-which will bring the total to more than 44%.
In fact, redefining the concept of public infrastructure to its narrowest meaning would violate Trump and the Republican Party’s own standards, which Trump has revealed many times during his tenure. Examples include the Trump White House’s promotion of its $200 billion infrastructure proposal in 2018, which includes federal funding for rail and water system upgrades, and his government’s public transportation plan in Nashville, which is based on infrastructure development. Pushed under the umbrella.
Trump stated in an executive order on January 31, 2019 to “enhance the American preference for the purchase of infrastructure projects” that “infrastructure projects” are defined as projects that develop physical assets for the public in all walks of life.
These are listed in order as “ground transportation, including roads, bridges, railways, and transit; aviation; ports, including waterways; water resources projects; energy production, power generation, and storage, including sources from fossil fuels, renewable energy, nuclear, and hydropower ; Electricity transmission; Natural gas, oil and propane storage and transmission; Electricity, oil, gas and propane distribution systems; Broadband Internet; Pipelines; Rainwater and sewer infrastructure; Drinking water infrastructure; Cyber security; The steering committee is designated by a notice published in the Federal Register.”
although Republicans‘Earlier this year, Biden’s original planned “5% or 6%” claim may be out of date. They were supported by the argument that the author of the bill’s definition of infrastructure (including R&D and manufacturing, home care, Housing and clean energy tax credits) seem unreasonably broad. But in subsequent negotiations, many of these elements were removed from the legislation. This led to a more streamlined final bill, with more than one-third of the funds allocated to “real infrastructure” projects, directly contradicting Trump’s statement.
Weekly newspaper Trump’s press office was contacted for comment, but no response was received before the release.
ruling
Most of them are fake.
Newsweek fact check
There is some room for controversy surrounding the specific and evolving definition of “public infrastructure”.However, in the absence of evidence or sources, 11% of the figures are quoted trump card Because the total share allocated to “actual infrastructure” is inaccurate.
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