Final thought on infrastructure stimulus

A figure like $2.2 trillion, to me, seems like a classic use of the "door in the face" sales method.
The "door in the face sales method" works basically like this:

A 16-year-old wants a new car, but his parents are skeptical. One day, he says "Mom, can I have a Ferrari? It's only $185,000?" She laughs and says "no." "Well," the crafty teenager says "for 1/20th of that you could put me in a brand new, safe Honda Civic." Suddenly, $9,750 doesn't seem so bad, when faced with the other, Ferrari-sized figure. So the mom buys the smaller car.

I would suggest that the ASCE is aware that $2.2 trillion is a completely impossible amount to ever be allocated to anything other than war. But by making the figure simply enormous, they have padded their chances of getting a sum that is much smaller than $2.2 trillion, but much larger than it would have been if they had simply asked for the genuine amount they figure Congress will allocate.


_