Posted on 06/29/2015 6:13:28 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
It’s summertime, and that means millions of Americans cramming in their minivans and crisscrossing around the country on family vacation. But how safe are the roads, and will they be backed up for miles of gridlock?
This year the highway trust fund that finances our national highway system is running out of money. The federal gas tax will raise about $34 billion this year, but that isn’t enough revenue to cover all the spending Congress wants to do. So naturally, the lobbyists in Washington — including mayors, road builders, transit operators and civil engineers — are demanding a higher gas tax as the only way to fix potholes and keep traffic flowing. I call this crowd the gas-tax guzzlers.
Last week, I testified before the Senate Committee on Finance on whether we need a federal gasoline tax hike. I argued “no” and explained to committee members that the so-called highway funding shortfall is a hoax. The federal gas tax of 18.3 cents a gallon raises plenty of money to finance the upkeep of the interstate highway system.
What it shouldn’t finance are projects that have nothing to do with roads. Overall, more than 20 percent of federal gas tax dollars underwrites non-highway projects like mass transit, bike paths, high-speed rail, and bus lines. Think about the billions of federal dollars that are helping finance California’s $68 billion high-speed rail project to nowhere.
This year alone, roughly $8 billion of highway trust fund money will be raided and used for mass transit projects. Funding rail and buses with the gas tax violates the principle that those who use the infrastructure should pay for it.
Critics of this plan say that motorists should fund transit projects because this reduces road congestion. In reality, so few Americans take transit to work today,
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
The answer even in the most liberal areas was that the politicians should forthwith remove themselves to a place of great heat.
Since 2008, Congress has transferred about $70 billion from general funds into the Highway trust fund.source
The current corrupt cronies would prefer to convert every roadway into a tooltoad while they cruise down them with exempt status. I am getting tired of watching the fascists convert every roadway they can into toll roafs Agenda 21 style so they can take the taxes meant to pay for them and steal the money using a network of “projects” and backroom deals to get huge kickbacks to stuff into their own pockets. These politicians aren’t getting megawealthy because people are handing them money for their campaigns.
I once worked on a renovation of an old train station into a museum...it had TEA funding.
And a surprising amount of federal highway funding goes into very local projects. Next time you see local intersection improvement, its likely that 40% of the money to build it came from the taxpayers, was filtered through Washington’s machine, and doled back to your locality with strings attached (seat belt laws, BAC limits, and now ‘green’ strings like bike lanes).
If we kept federal highway money limited to highways, the tax could be reduced...and localities could decide how to fund their own local roads, train stations, bike paths, etc.
Exactly. But it does and that is the problem of government.
I have a toll booth near my Nashua NH office that I can see from my window.
At 8AM there is a lot of traffic, but later there is very little until after work again.
I calculated that the number of cars that pass through and pay their $0.50 cents is barely enough to cover the salary of the toll taker, and the cash basket you toss you quarters into does an equally good job. And if you include the benefits and overhead of the managers and assistant managers and secretaries and accountants on staff for overhead the cost is much more.
So... we are paying tolls to pay the salary of toll takers.
Yeah, the latest estimates on the eve of the Marxist day (May 1) had it 63-37 going down in defeat. The 80-20 was good. The 20 (BIG GOVERNMET employees) need to get lost. This one should’ve been 100 - 0.
Thanks for posting. Very good article. HOORAY Stephen Moore.
T.E.A.
Socialism Is Legal Plunder
/debt slavery
/Rick Granholm
without fail, anytime I pass a roadwork site, I count more than half of the crew standing around and doing nothing ...
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