Hillary Clinton's Biggest Promise: Infrastructure Spending: VIDEO

Hillary Clinton's Biggest Promise: Infrastructure Spending

source bostonherald.com

edited by kcontents 

by Ryan McQueeney   Published on August 08, 2016 

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is hitting the campaign trail hard and leaving her supporters with at least one promise that they can hold her accountable for. With all of the hot button issues in this year’s election, it may come as a surprise to some that Clinton’s biggest promise centers around infrastructure spending.

Clinton’s infrastructure plan comes in the form of a new jobs bill that she promises to have through Congress within the first 100 days of her presidency. The bill would provide $275 billion in additional infrastructure spending over the next five years.

source .cbsnews.com

Clinton’s plan would actually create a national infrastructure bank, where $25 billion of the budget would go towards supporting loans and loan guarantees that could add up to an additional $225 billion to the deal. When all is said and done, the new bill could lead to a $500 billion federal investment in infrastructure.

In an email to Business Insider, a senior Clinton campaign policy advisor explained that the Democratic nominee sees American infrastructure as both an emergency and an opportunity.

 

"As a share of the economy, federal infrastructure investment is roughly half of what it was thirty-five years ago… Investing in our infrastructure will not only create good-paying jobs today, but also unlock the potential of our economy to create the good-paying jobs of the future,” he said.

Clinton plans to pay for the infrastructure facelift with business tax reform, which would also be included in the first 100-day jobs bill.

Interestingly enough, infrastructure spending is not just a cornerstone of the Clinton campaign. In fact, Republican nominee Donald Trump has promised to spend at least twice as much on infrastructure as Clinton promised. However, Trump’s plan appears to be less fleshed out than Clinton’s at the moment.

In an era of incredibly sharp partisan divide, infrastructure spending could be one of the few topics that sees bipartisan support. American infrastructure is quickly becoming outdated, and public spending would create results that constituencies can actually see.

By putting a 100-day deadline on the new jobs bill, Clinton is also asking to be held accountable for the promise.

As far as the stock market is concerned, federal investments into infrastructure will be varied, but investors should probably keep their eyes on the iShares Global Infrastructure ETF (IGF - ETF report) if Clinton’s plan does go through.

https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/227300/hillary-clintons-biggest-promise-infrastructure-spending

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