Article snippet: A plan crafted by Republican and Democrat members of the House of Representatives from the bases of both parties, with help from a new firm in Washington designed at its launch to foster ideas from the poles of the parties rather than the establishments of the parties, is expected to be introduced next week when lawmakers return from a President’s Day district workweek. In fact, unlike a gas tax hike plan that the White House semi-embraced in the past week, this plan would not only not raise taxes or the deficit—it would cut into the deficit and pay for infrastructure. The plan, which does not raise taxes or increase the deficit at all in order to pay for infrastructure, takes troubled government assets like buildings or debt and sells them off at auction to financial institutions—then turns around and spends the funds raised in the auction sales in two separate ways: Half the money would go directly into the United States Treasury to pay off part of the national debt, while the other half would be evenly distributed to infrastructure projects in the 100 poorest communities in America. Creating what’s known as a “pay-for,” a mechanism by which to fund infrastructure and deficit reduction in this way, isn’t entirely new: Ronald Reagan did something very similar back in 1986 to pay for tax cuts. What’s more, unlike the current White House plan or others from Congress, this type of a plan could pass with significant bipartisan support in an election year like 2018—a... Link to the full article to read more