Posted on 05/01/2019 6:44:08 AM PDT by Mariner
Democrats and Republicans are quick to talk up a bipartisan infrastructure deal. Yet neither party wants to take the political risk of paying for it when all options are toxic -- including the obvious choice of raising the national gas tax.
Increasing the gas tax is so politically fraught that it hasnt been touched in 26 years and it didnt even come up at a meeting at the White House Tuesday between President Donald Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to discuss an infrastructure plan.
While they agreed broadly on the need to upgrade roads, bridges and airports, they put off for three weeks the tougher conversation about coming up with ways to fund an estimated $2 trillion in public works.
Taxes on fuel in the U.S. are among the lowest in the developed world, at 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel, and infrastructure advocates see raising the levies for the first time since 1993 as the best short-term option to generate needed revenue.
Still, a measure that would disproportionately affect poor and rural drivers raises opposition at all levels of the political spectrum. Its also created strange bedfellows -- aligning members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, born from the Tea Party movement, and progressives such as Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a Democratic presidential candidate.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
Why limit this to gas taxes, debt or income taxes? How about tolls and fees on the users? Toll roads, toll bridges, surcharges on airline tickets, etc. work well and actually charge the people benefiting from the improved infrastructure.
140 billion gallons of gasoline are sold each year. So a $10 per gallon tax for the next year and a half should cover the bill.
/sarc
Because sales tax and gas tax hits everyone.
That, in and of itself, is highly desirable and beneficial to the nation.
Great way of looking at it.... But I wanted my grand kids to pay for it
/S
Here’s an idea. How much do the 17 secret security agencies cost the American taxpayers? They botched the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. They didn’t see the fall of the USSR. They didn’t see the attack on 9/11. They didn’t see the takeover of the Ukraine and Crimea by Russia.
However, they seem to have had enough time on their hands to break the law by spying on Donald Trump for almost two years before he became president, and they continued their illegal spying even AFTER his election. Given this sorry record, we should eliminate these agencies and devote the money to fixing the infrastructure of this country, a true win/win.
The Founders did not think that secret police and standing armies were a good plan forward for a free United States. They were right.
One can never minimize that. That echoes the Uniparty’s claim of being able to “manage” big government (which by definition is irresponsible and out of control once it forms), with all due respect.
Transportation infrastructure needs to be in private hands. The Constitution grants Congress alone minimal oversight via the Commerce Clause.
Post Roads, good grief.
I did notice POTUS has not said much about it yet.
Fortunately the transaction process for tolls are not as onerous as they once were - long lines of people digging for their tickets, finding change, etc.
Neither, everyone should pay 10% tax no matter the earning and nobody should get a damn refund while not even paying in to the system! Postcard tax then becomes a reality:-)
Okay. Do infrastructure. Start with a giant wall along the Mehican border. Or fogettaboutit.
If they didn’t waste so much money on pet projects and corruption scandals, our overall taxes would be less and roads/infrastructure would have been the first items taken care of with little increase in taxes...
“You simply pay a percentage of the cost when you purchase an item for your use. No IRS at all based on income. No government intrusion into your income, but only intrusion into what sales tax was collected when you sold a good or service to someone else.”
That no longer works because sales are world-wide now. If you tax one country people will shop in another.
Transitioning to such a system would be great for those in debt, but horrible for those who have savings. All the money saved from a taxed income would now get taxed as it is spent.
How about a “Truth-in-Taxation Law”, which:
1. Requires each recipient of gasoline tax receipts to HONESTLY report in detail how those receipts were spent.
2. Prohibits spending those receipts on non-highway building and maintenance projects.
Results:
1. Bike paths and hiking trails are funded some other way.
2. AMTRAK capital projects and repairs are funded by AMTRAK.
3. Over-priced light-rail “projects” are funded some other way.
4. State Police salaries and benefits are funded some other way.
5. Soft-hat Federal and State “transportation” bureaucrats are funded some other way.
6. Frivolous “academic studies” are funded some other way.
7. Anti-growth “protest groups” are funded some other way.
8. Government “Slush Funds” are funded some other way.
In short, a renewed FOCUS on using gasoline tax receipts to pay for infrastructure will generate billions of dollars to pay for that infrastructure.
Big-spending Democrats may disagree.
Let the states raise their taxes as needed. It gives THE PEOPLE a voice....except in NY of course.
Sales tax only or raise solve all and commuter subway prices an equal amount to gas.
Can you give me any reason why Priusses and other hybrids get a free or even subsidized ride?
It would be nice if they spent the gas tax they get on roads and not on other things. I spend about $5 a tank on the Fed tax. That should be more than enough to pay for my use of Fed funded roads but apparently that’s not the case for some reason beyond my comprehension.
Eliminate the purchase tax break on Electric and Hybrid vehicles.
That fixes the problem entirely.
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