Oh, come on. We are mostly selling scrap to American recyclers and American steel mills which have been modernized to utilize the huge amounts of scrap iron that we have instead of raw iron ore. We have so much scrap that we have surplus scrap to sell overseas to bring in vital foreign dollars. China is a huge market because they are still building infrastructure, being so far behind us. The aren't able to produce enough scrap metal to meet their needs so they buy it internationally. It's going a long way to help the trade imbalance between us. They mostly buy low-grade scrap that is expensive to recycle because it is mixed with lots of plastic and other stuff that has to be refined at great expense and China has the low wage workers that can do it. We don't. China is a great market for us. If they didn't exist, we'd have to invent them.
They aren't mutually exclusive. I agree we need a massive investment in our infrastructure. As the US has done historically it needs to be a public/private partnership. Roads, bridges, airports, seaports and waterways have tremendous need of expansion and upgrade. Use taxes have been the traditional method to pay for these and they work well. Unfortunately things like fuel taxes and the tax that airplanes pay for support the airways have either been not raised or are inequitably distributed and the funds needed are not there. Likewise our electrical transmission and distribution infrastructure is in woeful shape. Incentives and penalties need to be reengineered to encourage and allow utilities to make the improvements needed. Both parties have screwed up our tax system for political gain...the Rs have become anti tax to the extreme and Ds see using the tax system as a toll to both harm their enemies and help their friends. We all have to realize there is need for an active and vital federal, state and local government structure and it takes money to do the things required for a successful society. We also have to understand there are very needed limits to government power. The first 10 amendments to the constitution were there to limit the federal government's power over the people. That is a fact often forgotten or ignored and one of the best lessons our founding fathers left us. There is plenty of room after that to debate how much and how after that basic need is covered.
