Clifford Winston: 'Stimulus' Doesn't Have to Mean Pork - WSJ.com

Clifford Winston: 'Stimulus' Doesn't Have to Mean Pork - WSJ.com

Clifford Winston of the Brookings Institution writes that infrastructure projects like highway expansion usually don't pay off: "[O]ver the past decade we have reaped a mere 1% return on our highway investments. And what's more, for every $1 the government has spent trying to reduce roadway congestion, motorists have saved a mere three cents in travel time and other costs." Winston wants the price to travelers for each mode of transportation to match the cost, rather than burying the cost with subsidies. "But if prices were aligned with actual costs (through tolls), demand would fall. This would especially be true during peak travel periods, and therefore public expenditures would not be wasted on dubious projects." (Via Backyard Conservative.)