Posted on 07/07/2014 7:38:43 AM PDT by Red Badger
Washington needs more money and if it doesn’t get it, your morning commute will become:
a) more expensive
b) more unpleasant
c) both
The problem, you see, is that the Highway Trust Fund is "going broke,” by the Beltway’s curious definition of the phrase. It is sort of the way that after a round of painful “cuts,” spending somehow still goes up.
The Highway Trust Fund takes in more than 18 cents on every gallon of gasoline sold in this country, so there is plenty of revenue. Just not enough to meet Washington’s needs and desires. People are driving more fuel efficient cars and with gas already around $4 a gallon, not taking the trips they might otherwise take. So instead of having the $50 billion that Congress budgeted, the trust fund is looking at $34 billion.
So cuts are coming, possibly as soon as August, and, as Keith Laing of The Hill reports:
Those cuts could leave drivers facing congested or damaged roads, sparking anger ahead of November's midterms.
Sort of like closing down the monuments during one of those government shutdowns. The idea being to inflict immediate pain.
The president has gotten involved, talking about the jobs that are at stake and saying:
“We’re not going to be able to fund the Highway Trust Fund and to ramp up our investment in infrastructure without acts of Congress.”
Gasoline is not a discretionary item in the budget of most Americans. Making it more expensive means there will be less to spend elsewhere. The people calling for urgent measures to keep the trust fund from going broke say they are concerned about jobs.” Theirs.
One wonders just how much pork a penny a gallon in new taxes would buy.
No talk, of course, of privatizing. Using the tolls mechanism.
Just more taxes. For jobs.
And bike paths, hiking trails, green belts, public transportation, and union pension funding has nothing to do with it. /s
What “Highway Trust Fund”?
I want to raise the gas tax in exchange for getting rid of prevailing wage rule on road projects.
We need better roads (let’s tax). We need cheaper better roads (get rid of prevailing wages).
Seriously, an 18 cent a gallon tax amounts to about 1/2 cent per mile driven for your average sedan.
Inflation has made 18 cents too small a tax combined with the fact that most sedans (Malibu, Accord, Camry, Fusion) get better than 30 mpg highway.
Money in the “highway trust fund” being spent on non-highway things is what causes the “trust fund” to run out of money.
Never, ever approve another tax. Never. It’s not needed.
What’s needed is some accountability wrt how the money is spent. At one time in America, an outfit called “The House of Representatives” represented tax payers and provided oversight on spending.
But that idea is soooo 1950s,
“Aren’t those fuel efficient cars supposed to be lighter, therefore wear much less on the roads?”
No , closer tolerances in manufacturing, direct injection engines combined with computer control of valve timing, spark ignition and air/fuel mix have made for an incredibly efficent vehicle that sill weighs in at 3000 lbs.
vehicles getting more efficient fuel mileage or the congress stealing from the highway tax funds to use on pet projects to help them get reelected? I’d say the latter. Also factor in the 94 million unemployed who can’t afford to buy fuel.
We have more than enough money to pay of the highways if we got rid of all the things you listed and more.
Ditto with the "Sequestration" we have 2,856 other things to cut (like Frog Statues or some study of California Grape Genes funded by the Air Force or Health and Human services) before we "have to make cuts in the children lunch programs" or scare monger everyone that our Veterans would go without Healthcare, which apparently they do already.
It's all a game and our money is the pawns! >:(
The states rape that fund and have their own tax besides. In NYS, we get scr**** royally as the tax is on the dollar not on the gallon. NYS never had so much money in their road programs....and still the roads are cr**.
A couple years back, good ole NYS approved (IIRC) 95 new taxes.
If this Government didn’t misspend this money on other Non-Highway projects they would have plenty in the fund now.But they go out and waste it on Railroads, Airports,Etc.That already.
So they’re stealing from drivers to support all of these non-Highway projects.
That sounds reasonable. Until you realize you cannot trust our rulers to spend the increased tax on roads. In fact I can pretty much guarantee they won’t.
Just more unintended consequences of the do-gooder nanny state and their constant quest to control every aspect of our lives 24x7.
The weight of the average car produces very little highway wear. I read once that one fully loaded 18 wheeler causes nearly 10,000 times the damage of one passenger car.
I can see how more efficient cars would reduce money flowing to the Highway Trust Fund.
I can also see how borrowing (stealing) Highway Trust Funds would cause the Highway Trust Fund to go broke far sooner than less destructive light weight fuel efficient cars.
Cars are much heavier because of safety regulations and more fuel efficient because of environmental regulations. Just another unanticipated consequence of the liberal agenda.
“Inflation has made 18 cents too small a tax combined with the fact that most sedans (Malibu, Accord, Camry, Fusion) get better than 30 mpg highway.”
But the fact remains that not all the money is spent on highways. Congress siphons of a huge amount and spends it on bike paths, greenways, public transportation, and a whole host of other non-highway related projects. When they spend it ALL on highways instead of pet projects, THEN we’ll talk about raising the gasoline tax.
Nearly a million dollars to repave a stretch of bike path through the hood in the city near me. The amazing thing is that the one opposing voice was the city councilman representing the core of that ward. He said it wasn’t a priority and its been nothing but trouble by becoming a highway for crack heads, criminals, hookers and child molesters.
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