DALLAS -- President-elect Donald Trump's $1 trillion infrastructure proposal is getting increased scrutiny from lawmakers of both parties who are wary of the tax credits that underlie the plan and its reliance on investments by the private sector to fund 10 years of transportation projects.
Few details of the proposal that was developed by the Trump campaign's economic advisers are available. The 10-year plan is based on $137 billion of tax credits that Trump said would leverage $1 trillion of private investments in infrastructure projects that had a revenue stream.
The proposal was announced a month ahead of the Nov. 9 election but Trump did not mention the infrastructure program in a short, post-election outline of his first 100 days in office.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he is interested in working with Trump on the infrastructure plan but ruled out potential revenues from international tax reform to finance the effort.
U.S.-based companies would be able to bring back overseas earnings in Trump's proposal at a reduced tax rate of 10% rather than the current 35%. With the credits, companies could avoid any tax liability by investing some of the repatriated profits in infrastructure projects.
"To get the kind of infrastructure money that Donald Trump is talking about, then you'd have to do a lot more than international tax reform to get it done," Schumer said during an interview on Fox News Sunday on Nov. 20.
"It just doesn't bring in the dollars you need," he said. "That infrastructure bill has to have certain things for us to support it. It can't just be tax credits. That won't be enough."
It might be possible to get a major infrastructure bill through Congress within Trump's first 100 days in office, Schumer said.
"It's got to be large and bold," he said. "A a trillion dollars makes sense. It's got to be real new expenditures."
Schumer will replace retiring Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., as Senate minority leader when the new Congress convenes in January.
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said immediately after the election that infrastructure is an issue that could unit the parties, but later said that Trump's $1 trillion plan is not acceptable as proposed.
"Investing in infrastructure is an important priority of his," she said on Nov. 9. "We can work together to quickly pass a robust infrastructure jobs bill."
Pelosi qualified her initial optimism in Nov. 21 letter to House Democrats.
"We must insist on a bill that puts good-paying jobs for workers first, not one that is a corporate tax break disguised as an infrastructure bill," she said.
"Democrats will not, for the aura of finding common ground, succumb to supporting what we don't believe in," Pelosi said. "We have good ideas about infrastructure, and we hope the president-elect would be open to them."
Support for the Trump plan is mostly lukewarm in the Republican ranks so far.
Senate minority whip Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Republicans cannot support international tax reform and tax credits that could add to the federal deficit.
"The question is whether we do it now or whether we send it to our kids and grandkids and make them pay for it," he said. "That's an important point that we need to achieve some consensus on."
Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, said he was skeptical of the funding proposed by Trump for the infrastructure plan.
"We are not going to vote for anything that increases the national debt," he said. "Fiscal conservatives in the House are not going to support anything that is not paid for."
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Tuesday that he would re-introduce in January a five-year, $1 trillion infrastructure plan that he first proposed in January 2015.
"The plan [Trump] offered is a scam that gives massive tax breaks to large companies and billionaires on Wall Street who are already doing phenomenally well," Sanders said. "Trump's plan is corporate welfare coming and going.
