Both Democratic and Republic presidential front runners may disagree on many hot-button subjects but the two agree on the need to upgrade the our country’s aging infrastructure. Investors can capitalize on the potential increased government backing in the sector with infrastructure-related exchange traded funds.
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton believes the U.S. is “dramatically underinvesting in our future” and wants to fund projects like roads and water ways while Republican nominee Donald Trump has stated that our country’s infrastructure is “terrible” and airports are a “disgrace,” promising to “start the greatest long-term building project in American history,” reports Brian Chappatta for Bloomberg.
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The American Society of Civil Engineers calculated that the U.S. will fall $1.44 trillion short of the $3.32 trillion required to inves tin infrastructure through 2025.
Clinton’s website outlined a plan that would raise federal spending on public projects by $275 billion over a five-year period and construct a national infrastructure bank that would run an expanded Build America Bonds program.
According to Trump’s book, “Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again,” he has called for a “trillion-dollar rebuilding program” that will be “one of the biggest projects this country has ever undertaken.”
While the federal government goes through the political throes, states and cities seem to be ahead of the curve, spending billions of on infrastructure projects. The recent spending is still only a drop to what is needed, but municipal officials who have hesitated to borrow are beginning to loosen their purse strings.