How to pay for infrastructure

Borrowed money is great — but is the infrastructure a good idea at all?

(Getty Images)

Back in January, when the Biden economic team originally outlined its American Rescue Plan, they also said that they anticipated rolling out a second plan — which at the time, they dubbed “recovery” — which would be more focused on infrastructure.

What they said was that they expected that second plan to be ready in time for Biden to address a joint session of Congress, which new presidents normally do in late February, but they did not commit to a specific date. Obviously it is now early March, Biden has not addressed a joint session of Congress, and there is no plan available.

But members of Congress are starting to talk about it, with moderates expressing a few reservations.

I myself have reservations about the idea of a multi-trillion infrastructure bill, but the specific reservation I am hearing — which is focused on the budget deficit — strikes me as precisely the wrong thing to worry about. If you have a good infrastructure plan (and I really hasten to emphasize t…