Rebuild America the beautiful: Don
President Trump on Wednesday touted his $1 trillion infrastructure plan — declaring that he would not let the United States degenerate into a “museum of former glory.”
During a speech along the banks of the Ohio River in Cincinnati, the president vowed the nation’s roads, bridges, highways, dams and inland waterways would be repaired and rebuilt.
“We are here today to talk about rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure — and we will do it using American labor, American energy and American iron, aluminum and steel,” Trump said before a supportive crowd, without identifying any specific new projects.
And he stressed the importance of strengthening America’s economy by creating more jobs.
“It’s time to rebuild our country, to bring back our jobs, to restore our dreams and, yes, it’s time finally to put America first, and that’s what I’ve been doing if you haven’t noticed,” he said.
“I think everyone has noticed, right? We have noticed. The people are noticing like they’ve never noticed before. We’re already making historic progress.”
Trump wants to leverage $200 billion in his budget proposal into $1 trillion worth of projects.
He pointed to a government program that allows the private sector to tap into low-cost government loans called the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act as a way to leverage federal cash with state, local and privatesector funding.
Trump also said the Senate needed to pass health-care reform and took a bow for reviving the Keystone Pipeline and cutting what he called burdensome business regulations.
Sounding relaxed and relieved to be away from the Beltway pressure cooker, Trump also reminisced about his Ohio election victory and said he takes “so much heat for nonsense.”
He even noted the 12 river barges moored in the Ohio.
“Those barges have been waiting for us to say hello. The captain says please wave. Hello, captain! He put up that big beautiful American flag,” the president said.
Trump also praised his controversial decision to pull the US out of what he derided as the "so-called" Paris climate accord.
"We will never have outside forces telling us what to do and how to do it," he said.
And he urged Democrats to support his policies — while predicting that they wouldn’t.
“I’m calling on all Democrats and Republicans to join together if that’s possible, in the great rebuilding of America. [But] they’re just obstructionist. Every single thing is obstruction,” he said.