Yeah but does it really matter? It's not like this kind of analysis is going to change much. Sure an informed electorate is supposedly a dangerous thing but that's only if they're able to protest and congregate and create a collective to stand up and demand change. If people don't have the ability to do this because they're scrambling to make ends meet but are still just comfortable enough or downtrodden enough not to act up (not out)...It's time for America to treat itself but it won't, we can spend an extra $900 billion but how much of that would just go towards military since apparently we need to spend $1 trillion on upgrading our nuclear arsenal? I've had a shit day and I don't believe any of this matters. By the time society has moved along enough to do something the rules of the game will have changed (see: climate change and mass migration of refugees). Austerity austerity austerity.
Frankly, we could blow it all on bridges, tunnels and roads and still not have enough.
Don't you think the perfect Republican wet-dream of marrying public-private is to not provide enough funding to public transit thereby forcing it to shut down for extended periods of time, and rely on private industry to pick up the slack?
Sure - but historically, Democrats spend big on infrastructure. It's always appreciated, it always makes jobs, and there's never a shortage of falling-down bridges to point at. I'd argue that the TVA and other New Deal programs got as far as they did because there weren't enough roads to go around so they had to build all sorts of other shit.