[Dog Gone]

If the White House had any principles, it would have vetoed every spending bill for the last few years that didn't include the same guarantee for income taxes, too.

So, if we needed to ramp up the Navy, we'd have to ramp up something in Montana to offset the spending in shipyards?

[Alberta's Child]

That's basically what the White House is saying in threatening to veto this bill.

The motives here are so transparent. The Federal gasoline tax is the only tax that falls disproportionately (relative to Federal expenditures) on rural states. In every other area of Federal taxes and expenditures, rural states are overwhelmingly classified as "recipient" states instead of "donor" states.

I'd say lets call their bluff on this one. Every state will be guaranteed to get back at least 95% of what they pay in Federal fuel taxes, and every state will get back at least 95% of what they pay in income taxes. Heck -- let's throw FICA and Medicare taxes in the mix for good measure.