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Republicans on Road to Ruin With Highway Bill
Townhall.com ^ | July 28, 2015 | Stephen Moore

Posted on 07/28/2015 5:08:44 AM PDT by Kaslin

Later this week, the highway trust fund officially runs out of money unless Congress authorizes more funding for roads and bridges. But the bill that is being pushed by Democrats and some Republicans is starting to look like a Republican Party Dunkirk that could infuriate conservative voters and even wind up costing the GOP the 2016 election.

The $320 billion six year public works funding bill would raise government spending, increase taxes on businesses and possibly provide a new lease on life for the corporate welfare queen -- the Export-Import Bank. This happens every time a highway bill comes up for a vote. Republicans toss out their fiscal conservative credentials and line up for the pork.

Some Republicans are even suggesting that a gasoline tax hike should be part of the plan. This would sock middle class voters, who haven't seen a pay raise in seven years and are financially strained. Polls show Americans hostile to new gas taxes paid at the tank.

Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York is drooling for a deal and pressing Republicans to drop their "no new taxes" pledge in a bipartisan package. Of course, the army of Washington lobbyists, from the AFL-CIO to road builders and the civil engineers (who say that hundreds of billions of dollars more need to be spent), are pulling a full-court press to get the money deal done.

But it's a complete dud. One plan would link "reform" of the corporate tax system -- which is admittedly an abomination -- with highway funding. But that deal is a net tax increase on American companies who already face the highest corporate tax rate in the world. The White House thinks that as much as $200 billion could be plucked from corporate America over the next six years. Tax reform should be tax neutral at best -- not a back door way to raise taxes.

One plan would force U.S. companies to pay a new "minimum tax" of between 10 and 15 percent on their overseas profits whether they bring the money back to America or not. Currently the corporate tax isn't applied to those earnings until the money is brought back to these shores.

If we want to fix the corporate tax system, simply cut the tax rate from 35 percent to closer to the international average of 25 percent. But that isn't what's on the table here and the plan being hatched would put U.S. firms in a deeper competitiveness hole. We are already seeing American companies such as Medtronic and Burger King flee the United States.

As for a gasoline tax hike, every penny increase pulls $1.5 billion from American families. A 15-cents-a-gallon increase would cost consumers and businesses close to $25 billion. Republicans were elected to cut taxes, not raise them.

The big canard here is that the highway fund is running out of money and that bridges will start collapsing if taxes aren't raised. Nonsense. The federal gasoline tax of 18.3 cents a gallon and other fuel taxes raise some $35 billion a year -- more than enough to pay for roads and bridges and highways. The problem is about 20 cents of every dollar raised isn't used to fund roads. Rather it goes to transit projects and bike paths and other pork. Unions make out like bandits because of the Davis-Bacon Act, which inflates wages and salaries on federal construction projects.

The worst feature of this highway robbery bill is that it could sneak in a new lease on life for the Export-Import Bank. Republicans would be surrendering to the corporate cronyism lobby at a time when we should be pushing companies like Caterpillar and Boeing off the dole.

In place of the wretched tax-and-spend deal, Congress needs to instead repeal Davis-Bacon and make sure that every dollar of gas tax money is used for roads. These two steps solve the "infrastructure crisis" that Washington created.

A tax increase to fund more pork road projects with new corporate welfare funding is the antithesis of what Republicans told voters they stand for in 2014. If they are dumb enough to pass a highway bill that contradicts all of their promises to voters, they deserve to lose Congress in 2016.


TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS: highwaybill; pork; republicans; taxes
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1 posted on 07/28/2015 5:08:44 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

“costing the GOP the 2016 election”

Who are they gonna go to? The DEMS????!!!!

I never MISS a voting season, and never will if I can physically and mentally drag myself out. And I will vote for the lesser of two evils if that’s my only choice.


2 posted on 07/28/2015 5:13:04 AM PDT by ThomasMore (Islam is the Whore of Babylon!)
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To: Kaslin

You know fedzilla wants to Agenda 21 all roads and collect tolls on every road. I see regular roadways being converted into toll roads everywhere lately. It just ain’t right.


3 posted on 07/28/2015 5:13:48 AM PDT by jsanders2001
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To: ThomasMore

“I never MISS a voting season, and never will if I can physically and mentally drag myself out. And I will vote for the lesser of two evils if that’s my only choice.”

Ah... it’s you that’s responsible for the RINOs!

Confession is good for the soul, they say.


4 posted on 07/28/2015 5:15:38 AM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion ( "Forward lies the crown, and onward is the goal.")
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

Why do you say... I’m responsible for the RINO’s... give it a break FRiend.


5 posted on 07/28/2015 5:17:37 AM PDT by ThomasMore (Islam is the Whore of Babylon!)
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To: ThomasMore

Empowering the problem.


6 posted on 07/28/2015 5:19:19 AM PDT by Ray76 (Obama says, "Unlike my mum, Ruth has all the documents needed to prove who Mark's father was.")
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To: ThomasMore

On this Highway Bill, which political party would you believe to be the lesser of two evils?


7 posted on 07/28/2015 5:20:50 AM PDT by dforest
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To: Kaslin
A tax increase to fund more pork road projects with new corporate welfare funding is the antithesis of what Republicans told voters they stand for in 2014.

Therefore that is what Republicans will do.

8 posted on 07/28/2015 5:25:57 AM PDT by arthurus (it's true!)
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To: ThomasMore

“Why do you say... I’m responsible for the RINO’s... give it a break FRiend.”

You stated you always vote and vote for the lesser evil. I’m just assuming you mean for the Republican candidate. Maybe that was a wrong assumption.

If you always vote for the Republican candidate, under the justification that he or she is the lesser evil, then here we are with a handful of RINOs that you chose.

But maybe you did not mean that...

Perhaps you can clarify on how you define the lesser evil when choosing who to cast that vote for?

Thanks.


9 posted on 07/28/2015 5:26:20 AM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion ( "Forward lies the crown, and onward is the goal.")
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To: Kaslin

“Road to Ruin”: the theme of the Republican primary voter for decades now


10 posted on 07/28/2015 5:29:43 AM PDT by Theodore R. (Liberals keep winning; so the American people must now be all-liberal all the time.)
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

When Jebbie is the nominee, the “lesser of two evils” is a tie. So find someone else.


11 posted on 07/28/2015 5:31:13 AM PDT by Theodore R. (Liberals keep winning; so the American people must now be all-liberal all the time.)
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To: ThomasMore
I suspect that even if a Republican wins the presidency in 2016 he will have a solidly Democrat House and Senate. The Republicans in Congress, including most of those elected as Tea Party firebrands have become handmaidens of the Democrats and there is not much of any reason to vote for them or even to kick them out in primaries as the likelihood is that it will happen all over again. In fact, if the Republicans win the presidency and keep the Congress, assuming the Republican President is an actual Conservative, he will face just as much opposition from the Republican Congress as he would face from the Democrats. Republican Primaries serve the purpose of letting the people choose just who they want fronting for the Chamber of Commerce.

It doesn't really matter to sitting Republican Reps and Sens if they lose in subsequent elections. Their fortunes are made by toeing the CofC and the Democrat line while serving. One term and a loss guarantees the Representative a wealthy lifestyle for the rest of his life so long as he voted "correctly" in his two 2 or 6 years in office. As a principled statesman he has only the income from his salary. That's not peanuts but there is ever so much more available if he just plays the game.

12 posted on 07/28/2015 5:35:45 AM PDT by arthurus (it's true!)
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

How do you know I’m not voting for an independent? Or that Many independents in this ultra liberal state that I live in are the only conservatives left, sad to say. I find myself voting for them.


13 posted on 07/28/2015 5:40:55 AM PDT by ThomasMore (Islam is the Whore of Babylon!)
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To: ThomasMore

“How do you know I’m not voting for an independent? Or that Many independents in this ultra liberal state that I live in are the only conservatives left, sad to say. I find myself voting for them.”

Indeed!

This is why I asked for clarification.


14 posted on 07/28/2015 5:42:12 AM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion ( "Forward lies the crown, and onward is the goal.")
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To: Kaslin

Can somebody please wake me up? This nightmare almost seems real.


15 posted on 07/28/2015 5:42:22 AM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

Only a moron would choose the greater evil.


16 posted on 07/28/2015 5:43:20 AM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: arthurus

There is an invisible political party - government. It is a caucus with real goals, focus and power. It will always work to elect its supporters. Ike’s worry about complex didn’t go far enough.


17 posted on 07/28/2015 5:44:51 AM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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To: Kaslin

They’ll find themselves in a no-holds-barred fight-to-the-death cage match with State Legislatures over raising the gas tax.


18 posted on 07/28/2015 5:53:01 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: 1010RD

“Only a moron would choose the greater evil.”

Only an immoral person would choose any evil...


19 posted on 07/28/2015 5:53:59 AM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion ( "Forward lies the crown, and onward is the goal.")
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To: aMorePerfectUnion

GOP House and Senate support down 18% sense election


20 posted on 07/28/2015 6:19:35 AM PDT by scooby321
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