Trump team floats ‘Infrastructure Bank’ derided by campaign

A key member of Donald Trump’s transition team said the incoming administration is exploring ways to fund fixing bridges and roads including establishing an “infrastructure bank,” a concept Hillary Clinton promoted and the Republican’s campaign had previously derided. Steven Mnuchin, a member of the team’s executive committee who was recommended for the position of Treasury secretary, said in brief comments to reporters Wednesday morning that a “very big focus is regulatory changes, looking at the creation of an infrastructure bank to fund infrastructure investments.” Trump’s campaign had criticised Clinton’s proposed infrastructure bank as being “controlled by politicians and bureaucrats in Washington” and funded by a “$275 billion tax increase on American businesses.” The billionaire’s economic advisers previously said infrastructure spending can be unleashed without creating a government entity. They released a plan in October advocating the provision of as much as $140 billion in tax credits to support $1 trillion in infrastructure investment, which would offset the credits through tax revenue from the projects’ labour wages and business profits. (Scott Lanman and Shobhana Chandra/Bloomberg)