From the Department of Unintentional Humor

At RealClearPolicy Albert Wynn, “strategic advisor” to an organization called Grow America’s Infrastructure Now, gives us what strikes me as the funniest quote of the day:

They say all politics is local. So it goes with infrastructure investment. Communities need to have honest conversations that deal in realities, not hypotheticals. Voters should consider each project on its merits, and hold their leaders — both public and private — accountable. The benefits these initiatives could deliver are too important to be subject to speculation, innuendo, or rigid adherence to party doctrine.

First, just 35% of infrastructure spending is funded locally. Second, it’s a genuine rarity that an infrastructure project is decided on based on the objective merits. More common reasons are political impact, where the money goes, or it’s some politician’s pet project. You can always expect the street in front of the head of the Department of Streets and Sanitation to have its potholes patched and to be the first to be plowed when it snows. I know that for a fact. The head of the DSS used to live in the next street.

Third, the majority of infrastructure spending goes to expansion rather than maintenance. If you assume decreasing returns to scale in infrastructure spending (how much value does the 153rd bridge across the Mississippi really add?), at the very least that suggests skewed priorities and I would say that it just substantiates my view that most money spent on infrastructure is wasted.

If you really wanted infrastructure spending to be allocated on the merits you’d get rid of Davis-Bacon laws and privatize the roads. I don’t expect the former and don’t support the latter so what I think will happen with any infrastructure spending bill is that a) support for the bill will break along party lines; b) most of the money will be wasted; and c) somebody’s political donors will make a lot of money.