Post by suzeeqSpread out over 10 years shouldn't inflate the economy. Especially the
part that's going to infrastructure, which provides jobs.
Spending is spending. 10% of the $1 trillion is highways/bridges, with
additional monies for railroad and transit. The rest of it isn't
directly for what you would think of as infrastructure.
The trouble with traditional infrastructure spending unless it's pure
repair is that it chooses winners and losers. The nation as a whole pays
for it but only selected locations benefit. This is why infrastructure
costs should always be charged to land and never to general taxes.
It also means that the government has chosen for you what money will be
spent on, and that disrupts the free market.
From what I can tell, the infrastructure spending will largely be
contrary to the goals of the massive spending to mitigate climate
change, so everybody in Congress is an idiot. In my area, there is a
massively congested expressway, three lanes in each direction through
the western suburbs. The state has wanted to widen it to four lanes in
each direction for decades. It will cost $1 billion, probably. More road
capacity will reduce mass transit usage; there are parallel transit
routes. Encouraging more driving is contrary to climate change goals.