Posted on 02/14/2018 6:06:57 PM PST by babble-on
President Donald Trump is reportedly open to raising the federal tax on gasoline and diesel by 25 cents to pay for the White House's infrastructure plan.
The current taxes, which have not been raised in nearly 25 years, are 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents for diesel.
At least some Republican lawmakers and many conservative groups are opposed to hiking the federal fuel levy.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
I don’t know what they are doing with the money, but I do know government agencies and strongly suspect they are siphoning off most to the gas tax money into their pet projects. The President should send in the IG and sort it out.
I have a better idea; repeal Davis-Bacon. The wages on public works projects are stratospheric.
I admit when I’m wrong. I looked it up. It does go into a transportation trust fund. However, Congress can raid that fund to use it for other things. I found this from the Cato Institute.
Since 2008, Congress has had to replenish the trust fund with $55 billion in general funds. This isn’t, however, a subsidy to highways; in the last decade, Congress has diverted well over $55 billion of gas taxes to non-highway projects.
“I’m indifferent. I doubt that I’ve put more than a hundred miles on my vehicles in the past four months, or over 500 miles in the past year.”
Yeah well, there is a ton of poor slobs in fly-over country that have to drive over 100 miles to work and back every day just trying to feed the kids. Ever think about them?
Terrific. And here in WA the Dem’s (we’re a one party state) are going for a ‘carbon’ tax on gas, heating fuel and I think propane(?)
The FIRST thing Trump should do is audit the highway fund. When and where have funds been diverted outside highway projects? Stop the theft, then MAYBE CONSIDER some sort of tax dedicated solely to roads. Eliminate corruption first.
Completely nuts!
ANY tax or tax increase at the time of recovering from a major recession would be a fatal mistake.
Besides that, I wonder how those of you who would not only support paying an increase at the pump for your daily drive to and from work, but also the increase in prices for goods at the store as a result of the increase in taxes paid into the black hole (DC) for the fuel the truckers use to deliver those goods.
About 10% of this future money paid in that tax would actually make it into the projects intended for. The rest would be absorbed into the pockets of the scum that inhabit the noor loch, that being Washington DC.
Eliminate some of the useless departments in that scum hole and use that money towards those projects. The rest can be obtained through the elimination of foreign grants and through excise taxes from unfair imports.
If higher gas taxes generated better infrastructure, California roads would be some of the best in the nation.
Unnamed sources....and CNBC ain’t any better a source than Axios
I really really really don’t want to pay $4/gal plus tolls.
Make sure those building the roads are accountable for work that needs to be done over in a week and this wouldn’t be a necessary discussion.
It won’t..
lets cut spending on things the feds should NOT be doing and get back to what the constitution requires the feds to do and let states handle the rest, see how that goes first...
oh wait..
That would include roads.
end the federal gas tax.
Just put it as a surtax on CA , NY and IL so they can start paying for our road improvements for a change...
I burn between 50-100 gallons a week..
Oh hell no..
the gas is to damn high already.
A tax cut followed by increases—no sense here.
For several years I drove 100 miles round trip to and from work. It was my choice to work that far from home, or to live that far from work. I grumbled when I was filling my tank with gas that cost over $1 more (and up to $2 more) than it currently costs (especially since I was usually driving a Chevy Suburban that wasn't particularly fuel efficient), but I got by. If I couldn't have afforded the commuting costs I could have changed my employment or residence to change the situation.
For just as long a period of time as I had that long commute, I lived and worked someplace else. I lived a mile or so from work, so I could walk in, and I lived in apartments where their marketing brochure said "We're not actually public housing. We just look like it." I got by then too.
Before that for a period of time, I rented a bedroom from somebody to live in, worked at minimum wage, and commuted about 60 miles a day through city traffic driving a boat of a 1972 Ford LTD. Seemed better than the hassle of collecting unemployment. I counted up the pennies in my penny jar when keeping track of my net worth. I found ways to get by.
NOOOOO
We consume 145 billion gallons of gas every year which has an average tax of 50 cents (fed/state). That’s more than enough to repaved the entire interstate highway system EVERY YEAR.
https://www.quora.com/How-much-would-it-cost-to-repave-all-of-the-interstates-in-the-U-S
WHERE IS ALL THAT MONEY GOING THEN TALK TO ME ABOUT NEEDING MORE.
And that’s why I’m opposed to it. It will be sold as “build new roads” but only a tiny fraction will actually go to lane miles.
Regressive taxes are as “good” as taxes get.
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