Then why didn’t they? I’ve never read of private companies chomping at the bit to build interstates in the 50’s. And you’d enjoy paying a toll every time you got on one?
Of course you won’t hear about it. Certainly enough private contractors were “chomping at the bit” to take the people’s tax money to build the system, which suppressed any initiative, never mind suppressed any questions about constitutionality.
I’d be fine paying tolls if it meant not having to pay Uncle Sam any gas tax. At least I would not be wondering what they did with that money, since it all goes into the general fund and gets “transferred on paper” to the so-called “dedicated fund” (per the FHWA themselves).
PS. What I described with respect to private contractors building interstate highways was one of the biggest instances of “crony capitalism”.