President Trump's $1 Trillion Infrastructure Plan Just Became More Costly

As expected, President Trump announced his infrastructure plan on Feb. 28 during his address to a joint session of Congress:

“To launch our national rebuilding, I will be asking Congress to approve legislation that produces a $1 trillion investment in infrastructure of the United States, financed through both public and private capital, creating millions of new jobs,” stated the president to applause from both sides of the aisle.

"But Trump still didn’t answer the question pretty much everyone has asked since he started promising big investments in infrastructure: How will the federal government pay for his ideal plan?" reports Brianna Gurciullo, with help from Tanya Snyder, for POLITICO Morning Transportation. Nonetheless, the announcement was revealing, according to NPR National Desk reporter David Schaper, whose notes appear in an annotated version of the president's address:

This is the first time the president has suggested public financing will be needed in addition to private investment to fix and rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, but it is still unclear where that money will come from. There is significant opposition within Trump’s own party in Congress to raising gasoline and diesel taxes, and there is some opposition in his own party to increasing tolling on the nation’s highways, bridges and other infrastructure — a key way to leverage private funding for infrastructure.

President Trump did add one detail to the plan that, ironically, will increase construction costs:

"This effort will be guided by two core principles: Buy American and hire American," he announced.

Melanie Zanona, reporting for The Hill in January, indicated that expanding the Buy America provision will likely not go over well with Congress. In fact, she writes that "a Republican-led effort to strip a so-called 'Buy America' rule from a water infrastructure bill was underway in the House."