DALLAS -- GOP nominee Donald Trump said he would "at least double" the $275 billion of federal investment in infrastructure over five years that has been pledged by his Democratic competitor Hillary Clinton if he is elected president in November.
"Her numbers are a fraction of what we're talking about, we need much more money than that to rebuild our infrastructure," Trump said Tuesday, referring to Clinton during a telephone interview on Fox Business Network. "I would say at least double her numbers, and you're really going to need more than that. I don't know if you've seen the warning charts, but we have many, many bridges that are in danger of falling."
Trump said 61% of the highway bridges in the United States are deficient. That's much higher than Federal Highway Administration's February estimate that 9.5% of the more than 600,000 bridges on the national highway grid are structurally deficient and should be replaced. The number rises to 24% if functionally obsolete bridges that should be renovated are included, FHWA said. That figure is still much lower than Trump's 61%.
The additional investments in infrastructure would generate jobs, Trump said.
"We have a great plan and we are going to rebuild our infrastructure," he said. "We need jobs because, if you look — you know, the real number [unemployment rate] is not 5%. It's probably closer to 20% because people have given up looking for jobs. We need jobs."
The additional $550 billion or more of proposed spending would be funded with the proceeds of bonds supported by an infrastructure bank that ordinary citizens would invest in, Trump said.
"We'll get a fund, we'll make a phenomenal deal with the low interest rates and rebuild our infrastructure," he said.
"We'd do infrastructure bonds from the country, from the United States. These would be bonds and these would be sold as bonds," Trump said. "People, investors would put money into the fund. The citizens would put money into the fund."
The Trump proposal is not a serious attempt to deal with the nation's infrastructure deficit, said Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon.
"Donald Trump's only actual infrastructure proposal is to build a giant wall on the Mexican border and have Mexico pay for it," Fallon said.
Clinton outlined an infrastructure plan late last year with $275 billion of new federal funding in addition to the $305 billion provided by the five-year, Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act, PL 114-94.
The Clinton plan would increase spending on highways, transit systems, water systems, freight rail, and ports by $250 billion over five years, along with a federal infrastructure bank that would be initially capitalized at $25 billion.
The low-interest loans from the proposed bank would leverage an additional $225 billion of infrastructure investments by state and local government as well as private investors, she said.
The funding for the Clinton plan would come from changes in the federal corporate income tax rather than a tax increase.
Clinton's infrastructure proposal includes a reauthorization and expansion of the stimulus-era Build America Bonds.
The infrastructure package would be one of her top priorities if she were elected president, Clinton said in a campaign speech last month.
"I pledge that in my first 100 days as president, we will make the biggest investment in new good-paying jobs since World War II," she said. "We need more jobs you can support a family on, especially in places that have been left out and left behind."
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Clinton's former rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, proposed a $1 trillion infrastructure plan in January 2015 just before announcing his candidacy.
The Sanders plan would have increased transportation spending by $735 billion through fiscal 2022 along with an additional $145 billion for water projects. It included an infrastructure bank capitalized at $5 billion per year for five years.
The first proposal for a national infrastructure bank was floated in the 1980s but failed to gain traction in Congress despite the numerous similar proposals, lawmakers have made.
A federal transportation law in 1995 authorized the creation of state infrastructure banks.
An infrastructure bank was part of Bill Clinton's platform when he was elected president in 1992, and was promoted by candidate Barack Obama in his successful 2008 campaign.
President Obama proposed a federal infrastructure bank in fiscal years 2010 through 2013. Former senators Chris Dodd and Chuck Hagel sponsored an infrastructure bank bill in 2007, as did former senators John Kerry and Kay Baily Hutchinson in 2011 and Senators Mark Warner, D-Va., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo., in 2013.
A conservative group was critical of these proposals. Clinton and Trump are using infrastructure to justify deficit spending, said Dan Holler, vice president of communications and government relations at the conservative Heritage Action.
"Republicans and Democrats must reject this notion that the federal government can continue borrowing money to spend our way to economic opportunity for all," Holler said. "Americans cannot afford another four years of Obama's failed economic policies, regardless of which party is pushing them."
