Woodall Expresses Cautious Support for Trump’s Proposed Infrastructure Spending Package

One of the key proposals from President-Elect Trump is a $1 trillion investment that would be used to repair the country’s infrastructure, and ultimately to boost the economy and add jobs. But, as Politico reports, Trump’s plan looks a lot like the stimulus proposed and implemented by President Obama early in his presidency. That concerns many Republicans, who argued strongly against the Obama version. Indeed, the president elect called for the need to prime the pump, essentially the same language used by Obama to sell his plan.

Georgia Rep. Rob Woodall, who is a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee, was quoted in the Politico story as expressing cautious support for the idea:

Georgia Republican Rob Woodall — who once declared that “America tried stimulus — it didn’t work” — said this week that he believes “there is no pathway to a world-class infrastructure to get American goods and services from our heartlands to our ports, that does not include a federal commitment.”

“I’m in favor of that federal commitment,” the transportation committee member continued, saying the panel’s members support public-private partnerships. “What I want is a dollar’s worth of value out of a dollar’s worth of federal tax revenue.”

Of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and at this point, it’s impossible to know how much of the plan will simply add to the deficit, as Obama’s did, will be paid for via public private partnerships, as Woodall implies, or will be balanced with spending cuts elsewhere in the budget.

But, if the Politico story is to be believed, many Republicans are unwilling to oppose the president-elect, at least at this point, until they see his actual proposal next year.