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Transportation

Let's Stop Calling It a $1.5 Trillion Infrastructure Plan

Between cuts to Fast Starts, Amtrak, and the Highway Trust Fund, infrastructure spending is in for a $40 to $75 billion net reduction over the next decade.
People get ready to protest U.S. President Donald Trump's recently unveiled infrastructure plan outside of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
People get ready to protest U.S. President Donald Trump's recently unveiled infrastructure plan outside of the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.Leah Millis/Reuters
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Talking out of both sides of the mouth: That’s the best way to think about President Trump’s infrastructure policy.

In its infrastructure bill released on Monday, the White House proposed spending $200 billion in federal funds on a grab-bag of programs. But in its fiscal year 2019 budget request, which was also released on Monday, Team Trump lays out a remarkably austere path for roads, bridges, and especially transit systems, with as much as $275 billion in cuts to infrastructure programs.