This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, April 1st, 2021.

I'm Caleb Brown.

President Joe Biden hopes to spend trillions of dollars on infrastructure in the coming years,

but the heavy reliance of his plans

on corporate welfare and tax hikes needed to fund these expansive visions ought to get at least

a little scrutiny.

Chris Edwards directs tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, he

comments. Before we get into what's in this plan, what is the state of infrastructure in the

United States? Well most infrastructure in the United States?

Well, most infrastructure in the United States is owned by the private sector.

In fact, about 65% of all infrastructure in America is owned by the private sector,

and that's broadband and its pipelines and its freight railroads.

You know, the usual assumption in a market economy is that the corporations, the businesses that own that private infrastructure are investing in it and keeping it in good repair which is generally true.

So you know most infrastructure in America the government doesn't have to worry about it. The private sector can handle it and

you know expanded by itself. So essentially what is Joe Biden proposing here?

Joe Biden's proposed a $2 trillion infrastructure plan with three big pieces.

The first piece he would subsidize some government-owned infrastructure like Amtrak.

My answer to that would be that, you know, Amtrak and

other federal infrastructure ought to be privatized. The second big bucket of

money goes to state-owned infrastructure like highways and airports.

I would argue we don't need those federal subsidies.

State governments and local governments can fund their own infrastructure

...