While innovation should be a primary concern for American public-policy leaders, one C-suite executive says infrastructure should be the nation's No. 1 priority.
Blackstone Chairman, CEO and Co-founder Stephen Schwarzman emphasized the importance of improving the nation's infrastructure in an interview with Maria Bartiromo for Fox Business. Mr. Schwarzman, who was named the chairman of President Donald Trump's strategic policy forum, said the U.S. falls significantly behind other Western nations in terms of infrastructure because of government red tape and partisanship.
"Infrastructure is a super big deal and it's liked by both republicans and democrats because it's needed. The U.S. is now 16th in the world in infrastructure[,] and anybody who goes to our airports or drives on our roads knows … that we can do better … If you travel abroad you see that we can really do much, much better … It's more than [red] tape, this is some other super — it's Elmer's glue, you just can't get stuff done … In Canada and Germany it takes two years to approve whole projects that take us 10 to 15 years [to approve] … Get the republicans and democrats together and say, 'I actually want to build something.' It's going to involve some people giving up some control, but what you get for that [—] you'll get lots and lots and lots of infrastructure."
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