Trump’s Plan for Dulles Airport Expansion, Another Vanity Project
Before getting into the nuts and bolts of the Dulles Plan, we need to let a couple of obvious truths see the light of day.
First of all, in an expensive and multi-year project such as this, $22 billion will no doubt double to $44 billion when finally accomplished. Second, there’s no critical need at Dulles, it’s simply another vanity project upon which to slather his name…apparently an open-ended need by a president with an insatiable and unhealthy appetite for personal aggrandizement.
The Maga Man probably hasn’t personally entered an airport in decades.
Like all egomaniacs, he travels by personal aircraft and always has.
If you find that unflattering, I apologize for ruffling your feathers, but a peek into what else might be achieved by such an investment is probably wise. We’ll use the $22 billion figure, without speculating on its more probable final cost.
In other uses, it would likely make possible:
Creating 80,000 to 150,000 affordable housing units, in a nation more desperate to take the homeless off the streets than make catching a plane more comfortable,
Building 250 to 400 new elementary schools,
Raising teacher salaries for about 300,000 teacher-years (at roughly $75,000 salary plus benefits),
Creating 1,000 to 2,000 neighborhood community health clinics,
Boosting public transit by 150 to 300 miles of either bus rapid transit or dozens of major improvement projects,
Replacing lead pipes in most, or all, service lines in many states,
Repairing thousands of structurally deficient bridges, before they fall down, and
Providing more than 1 million four-year public university scholarships at partial support levels.
It wouldn’t accomplish all of these needs, but take your pick for any one of which serves the public more usefully, with the only caveat that it doesn’t aggrandize the Trump name.
Golly gee, I guess we could survive that.
In education alone, it would modernize thousands of aging public school buildings, provide nation-wide free school meals for millions of hungry children over multiple years, and/or expand career and technical education nationwide.
At a time when artificial intelligence maybe does, maybe doesn’t threaten job markets, America desperately needs to expand its trade skills and the trade unions that support those jobs.
Maybe if we could find a way to put the Trump brand on those more society-wide requirements, we would actually get them.
As for Trump International Airport, thank you, but I think I’ll take a pass…