There's no debt at all in the Highway Bill (now law). Massive transportation bills are funded from gasoline taxes that accumulate into trust funds first, then are later allocated by Congress for specific projects.
That's the opposite approach of the regular Federal Budget, which is typically spending money first, then hoping to collect *income* tax revenues later (or to sell debt on the Market) to pay the piper.
If you factored in the Highway Bill to the federal budget for 2005, you'd *SUBTRACT* the gasoline trust funds ($286 Billion) from our current budget debt ($303 Billion so far this year). Of course, it would be silly to play those sorts of numbers games with the books (it's a 6 year highway bill, for one thing, and for another thing that would leave future Administrations with a pile of highway debt). So thankfully, that isn't being done.
Highway spending is from a gasoline tax trust fund. Federal Budget spending, in contrast, is based on anticipated future income tax reciepts and Fed issued debt.
So there is a dichotomy. Federal Budget spending comes from income taxes and debt. Federal Highway spending comes from the trust fund built up by gasoline taxes.
Different beasts.
In fact, the gasoline tax keeps sucking money *out* of our economy if there are no Highway Transportation bills. That's the worst of all worlds. Taxes with no spending.
It took 2 years to get this new Highway Bill (now law), during which time you never saw the federal gasoline tax cease being collected at the gas pump.
But once you get a Highway Bill, that gasoline money can at least be pumped back into our economy (rather than be out of circulation). Of course, even that's not ideal, but it beats just getting taxed for nothing.