Republicans weren't elected to raise the gas tax

Washington Examiner ^ | 1/12/2015 | Staff

[HomerBohn]

Politicians and pundits have spent a great deal of time trying to find the precise meaning of the results of the 2014 election. No one disputes that it was a great day for Republicans, but there are still many valid and varying interpretations.

But whether the election was a true mandate for the GOP or simply a repudiation of President Obama, voters most certainly did not hand Republicans the U.S. Senate and elect them to a historic House majority so that they could raise federal gasoline taxes.

This should really go without saying, but some Republicans are already discussing this as a real possibility. Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., have all been quoted discussing a gas tax hike as a serious possibility.

In their defense, this tax is not like most others. The government collects a fixed amount rather than a percentage of sales, so that over time the tax declines with inflation. The 18.4 cents per gallon imposed does not go as far today as it did when it was set at that level more than two decades ago. Even so, members of Congress would still be wrong to take the recent plunge in oil prices as an invitation to put a hand in drivers' pockets.

In defending a gas tax increase, Inhofe remarked to The Hill that “a lot of states are doing that on their own because 'well if the federal government won't do it we've got to do something about the roads.'”

Inhofe is correct on this point — and that's why a federal gas tax hike makes even less sense now than it usually would. Conservatives have often spoken in the past about devolving responsibility for transportation back to the states. This dream is possible, but not if Congress keeps raising the federal gas tax.

As Inhofe correctly noted, many states — Red, Blue, and Purple ones — have taken matters into their own hands. Federal aid is uncertain nowadays and will only become less certain in the context of growing entitlement spending. It is harder today for Congress to produce another controversial, pork-laden transportation bill like the one that expired in 2009. Thus, states and localities have begun finding other ways to take care of their own transportation needs — by tolling or leasing highways, by raising state gas taxes, and by borrowing money.

This is exactly as it should be. Americans surely remain grateful for the original construction of the Interstate highways, but it is no justification for perpetuating the current system, in which fifty states pitch into a national transportation slush fund that gets divided up unequally and returned. The building and maintenance of roads and bridges should be a function of state and local government. Ideally, the residents of each state should decide how to fund it — especially if it requires a tax increase.

To raise the federal gas tax now is to keep control in Washington — the same town so many Republicans campaigned against and called dysfunctional in the election just past. It would send a terrible signal about the party's sincerity, and about its new majority.

[HomerBohn]

Make the Democrats happy, RINOs, show them what you're really made of!

Any Republican who supports a gas tax increase needs a primary.

I was appalled when Corker the Porker went on TV and this was the main thing he talked about. Republicans should be about cutting taxes, not raising them. Corker, especially, needs a primary.

[Daveinyork]

Republicans who raise taxes generally don’t stay in power very long. Google George H.W. Bush and Tom Corbett.

[olepap]

the People can use the money they save on gas to pay Obamacare premiums.

[ZULU]

There are three political parties: Democrats, Establishment Republicans (RINOs), and Tea Party/Conservative/Libertarians.

Orrin Hatch is no surprise. This superannuated old fool should have retired ages ago (as though elected public office was a job!!).

If I remember correctly, this foil was one of the traitor Republicans who voted against Clinton's guilty conviction in the impeachment trial. I also remember something about his refusing to look at evidence which would have indicated he raped or tried to rape, Juanita Broderick.

No, they shouldn't touch the gasoline tax. IT'S THE TAXPAYER'S WINDFALL, NOT THEIR'S!!!!

Damn bastards are addicted to stealing other people's money. Throwing more money at the government is like throwing methadone at drug addicts - it just feeds their addiction!!!!

[Alberta's Child]

This article doesn't make a strong argument here. If the long-term goal is "devolution" of transportation from the Federal government to state governments, then there will be a need to address a lot of issues that come with it. A scenario where one state has a great highway system but it ends at the border with a state that prefers gravel roads doesn't seem realistic, but that's eventually what could unfold over time.

I haven't done the research, but I would venture to guess that the GOP leaders in landlocked states are the ones most supportive of a fuel tax increase. When you think about it, they've got the biggest stake in a national transportation network -- and the most to lose in a "devolution" scenario.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Increasingly our choice is clear.

Sit out the 2016 election.

Let the Liz Warren/Bernie Sanders radical wing of the Democrats come to power. Let them work their will on the august members of the Chamber of Commerce.

It won’t be long till they come crawling to us on their hands and knees, begging forgiveness.

[Tallguy]

“Let them work their will on the august members of the Chamber of Commerce.”

Except they never do. The socialist in the Democrat Party realize that there’s more money & power by emulating the fascist economic model as opposed to a communist one.

Dispensing favors to Fortune 500 companies is how they retire wealthy.

[GailA]

What the article LEAVES OUT, they are using the funds for projects other than roads and bridges. Bird Sanctuaries, those stupid fancy medians, Welcome Centers, and much more.

http://townhall.com/columnists/ericpeterson/2015/01/16/congress-should-pump-the-brakes-on-gas-tax-hike-n1943775?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&newsletterad

TN US Sen MONEY BAGS bob corker RINO is pro gas tax, Tn MONEY BAGS GOV bill halsam RINO wants a state gas tax hike.

Fed tax is 18+ cents, state is 21+ cents. RINO gov wants to hike it 12 cents more, on top of what ever the feds want.

[Pietro]

Dispensing favors to Fortune 500 companies is how they retire wealthy.

Brilliant observation!

[GailA]

That is as bad as the RINO gov doing it. He wants 12 cents state hike.

Most of the funds go toward things we don't need like a new welcome center, medians with flowers, wild flowers program last account I had of that it was 1.5 M per year to spread wild flowers that bloom for a couple of weeks along the freeway.

Memphis is a tangled mess of road construction for the next 4-5 yrs. Not pot hole filling rural areas either! We live in Atoka, TN just out side Memphis.

As long as he has the BIG BUCKS and 2 conservatives run against him, he will win! We have to fix our primaries.

TWIN RINO GAS TAX HIKERS! Remember corker is up for re-election in 2016!

[Pietro]

Is the picture starting to come into focus yet?

[Night Hides Not]

Buckeye, you’re on to something. The only way the point will be understood is for a complete blowout when the base stays home. Maybe we should have done that in 2012, because the Mittster is likely to give it another go.

[theBuckwheat]

We need people in the legislature and executive branch who will run government in a sound, business-like manner. Proper government functions must be funded properly and paving, painting and plowing our roads is certainly one of the major government expenditures. We have to fund this somehow and I much prefer a tax on gasoline than having a GPS device on my car to charge me by the mile while destroying my privacy to travel as I please without leaving bread crumbs for the NSA to record.

So, yes, in fact where necessary, Republicans were elected to raise the gas tax, if that is the proper way to fund our roads. Now, having said that in my own state the highway department had some wasteful habits and I also expect that the Republicans would want to correct that first and only then talk about what tax increases where really necessary if that was still the case.

[HomerBohn]

Bathhouse Barry shows his true colors as he picked the lazy, shuffling Marxist he wanted to help him in his assigned responsibility of ruining America and destroying anything good about our nation.

These two Tennessee RINOs are doing Barry’s bidding and dare anyone to do something about it. They want to take advantage of the temporarily lowered gas prices to feed their greed with more money.

These two are eager to join the first negro president in furthering the most inept, corrupt, wasteful, subversive, destructive and divisive government ever.

These are but shadows of men.

[elhombrelibre]

Yes, let’s give up. Let’s all just become whiny defeatists and not push back anymore.

[GailA]

DITTO, on target.