Infrastructure

From crumbling infrastructure to broken meritocracy, Steven Brill sees problems everywhere.

Light rail is a very expensive way to move very few commuters.

Light rail is a very expensive way to move very few commuters.

Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, senior writer Michael Warren discusses the latest with the Mueller investigation, the latest from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and the Wisconsin special elections.

President Trump traveled to Ohio Thursday to give what was supposed to be a speech touting his administration's infrastructure plan, as the White House attempts this week to refocus on infrastructure for the umpteenth time since Trump's inauguration. But that effort ran aground Thursday for the…

Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday expressed confidence in John Kelly and the “remarkable job” the retired Marine general is doing. The embattled White House chief of staff came under fire last week for his handling of domestic abuse allegations against former staff secretary Rob Porter.

Today on the Daily Standard Podcast, senior writer Michael Warren talks about the long-awaited Infrastructure Week, and associate editor Ethan Epstein joins to discuss the Olympics, North Korea's 'Smile Diplomacy' and its coverage by the American press.

“We will build new roads, and highways, and bridges, and airports, and tunnels, and railways all across our wonderful nation,” President Trump said in his inaugural address. On Monday, the administration attempted to make good on that promise by announcing what many in the media mistakenly called a…

If there was any enthusiasm for President Trump’s infrastructure proposal on Capitol Hill on Monday, it was hard to find. Republican Bill Shuster, the chairman of the House Transportation committee, gave a perfunctory statement noting the White House’s framework while hardly endorsing it.

It’s finally infrastructure week at the White House. The administration plans to release its legislative proposal on infrastructure Monday morning, including $200 billion in federal spending over the next 10 years.

Eleven months ago—before Donald Trump had to accept any of the disappointments of lawmaking—the new president stood before a joint session of Congress and called for, among other things, the passage of a trillion-dollar infrastructure plan.

During his first state of the union address Tuesday night, President Donald Trump repeatedly called for bipartisanship, painted hopeful images, and told inspiring stories about guests in the crowd. But a year’s worth of partisan battles cut through the president’s optimistic rhetoric.

Anyone who hoped that Donald Trump might diverge from his predecessors' penchant for a laundry list of promises must be disappointed.

It's about the infrastructure, stupid! Tonight's State of the Union address is rumored to be heavy on the infrastructure spending rhetoric. At Reason, Christian Britschgi observes "The point of infrastructure spending is to build infrastructure, not create jobs." Amen.

It’s become a joke around Washington that every week is “infrastructure week” at the White House, a policy focus derailed usually within the first few hours of Monday by news developments (or President Trump’s tweets).

What happened to Trumpism? Sure, we still get the oh-so-Trumpy tweets, but many of the issues that Donald Trump ran on have been cast to the wayside in the 11 months (it hasn’t even been a year yet!?) of his presidency.

This week on the Confab, Andy Ferguson takes us back 50 years to the Summer of Love. Fred Barnes tells us about a fight over billions of dollars in federal money for New York tunnels and train stations.​

President Donald Trump on Friday announced plans to streamline and simplify the "dense thicket" of regulatory red tape that drives up costs and slows construction projects to a crawl.

I leave it to others to sort out who said what to whom about Russia, loyalty oaths, secrets, and other matters now roiling Washington. Instead, here is an attempt to sort out the economic consequences of the doings of our political class.

Transportation secretary Elaine Chao told the Chamber of Commerce Monday that the Trump administration will unveil its infrastructure plan in the "next several weeks," the latest such estimate from a top official in recent days for one of the president's most touted priorities.

In a deeply divided America, infrastructure investment appears to be a rare area of political consensus. Donald Trump called for a major road-and-bridge program in his victory speech. Even House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi—opposed to nearly everything else for which Trump stands—has promised to…

What if, instead of a wall, we were to build, along the southern border, a cargo shipping canal?

A big federal investment in infrastructure is one of the few things that Donald Trump has specifically said he wants to pursue early in his presidency. It is not as high a priority for most congressional Republicans, to put it mildly.

A big federal investment in infrastructure is one of the few things that Donald Trump has specifically said he wants to pursue early in his presidency. It is not as high a priority for most congressional Republicans, to put it mildly.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, incoming Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer is among the Democrats willing to work with President-elect Trump to pass some of his more "populist" ideas into law. But the tough liberal campaigner issued a blanket statement about cooperating with the new administration.

Elaine Chao is the daughter of a shipping magnate. She was an administrator in the U.S. Maritime Administration in the mid 1980s. And when the calendar turned to the late part of the decade, she became chairwoman of the separate Federal Maritime Commission. Chao, who has had extensive government…

As a general organizing principle, if Nancy Pelosi is for something, it's probably a bad idea. What, you ask, could be wrong with chocolate ice cream? And yet, when one learns that the House minority leader has a scoop on a sugar cone every morning for breakfast, the stuff immediately goes from…

As a general organizing principle, if Nancy Pelosi is for something, it’s probably a bad idea. What, you ask, could be wrong with chocolate ice cream? And yet, when one learns that the House minority leader has a scoop on a sugar cone every morning for breakfast, the stuff immediately goes from…

Donald Trump said unequivocally Thursday morning that "this is the time" for government to borrow money for multiple spending priorities, an unusual position for the standard bearer of a GOP that made fiscal restraint one its signature positions during the tea party wave just six years ago.

Donald Trump set a lofty target for federal infrastructure spending Tuesday morning, saying that his administration would expend "at least double" the $275 billion over five years that Hillary Clinton has proposed.

I have a simple rule for politicians who profess their belief in the primacy of the market economy: Don't spend taxpayer money to provide a service that competes with the private market.