Posted on 05/04/2019 10:46:46 AM PDT by Kaslin
So the President is shopping around the idea of a massive infrastructure bill. In fact, if you were following him on Twitter this morning he was talking it up once again.
There is nothing easy about a USA Infrastructure Plan, especially when our great Country has spent an astounding 7 trillion dollars in the Middle East over the last 19 years, but I am looking hard at a bipartisan plan of 1 to 2 trillion dollars. Badly needed!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 4, 2019
Just one to two trillion, eh? Easy come, easy go, I suppose. But how do we plan on paying for this massive investment? Never fear. New York Congressman Chris Collins (R) took time out from preparing for his insider trading trial to offer a suggestion. We’ll just double the gas tax and let all of the little people pay for it! (The Hill)
A Trump ally on Capitol Hill is calling for the doubling of the federal gas tax and airline fees in order to pay for the $2 trillion infrastructure package being negotiated by President Trump and Democratic leaders.
Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) is urging Congress to double the 18.4-cents-per-gallon gasoline tax, which has not been raised in more than a quarter century. He also wants to double the existing fee that airline passengers pay per flight.
“I not only support increasing the gas tax; I support doubling it. I support doubling the airline passenger fee from $4.50 to $8 or $9. Those are user fees. I won’t even call it a tax,” Collins told The Hill in an interview after Trump and Democratic leaders agreed Tuesday to try to fund a $2 trillion bill to improve the nation’s crumbling roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
Look, I understand the need for some infrastructure improvements. The need certainly exists, particularly when it comes to interstate bridge inspections and repairs or smartening up our nation’s power grid. Those are big projects and they require a lot of funding. But even if the President has an “ally” in Chris Collins, that’s not the sort of friend he needs whispering in his ear right now.
It’s bad enough that spending has been out of control under this administration every bit as much as during Obama’s tenure, if not more. The fact that we didn’t manage to work some serious spending cuts into the package when the tax cuts went through remains a burr under the conservative saddle. But if we’re going to keep spending like a sailor during Fleet Week and your only idea as to how to pay for it is to raise taxes, precisely how is the GOP different from the Democrats at that point? A tax and spend policy smells just as odious by any other name.
Also, Donald Trump owes his 2016 victory to the support he received from working-class voters. And that’s precisely who gets hit the hardest when you start jacking up the gas tax. It’s easier to talk about an increase in the gas tax when gas prices are low, as they are now. But history should have taught us by now that those low gas prices won’t last forever. And you know what will last forever? The gas tax. Once you raise a tax, it’s a rare day when it gets lowered back to previous levels.
This is just one more sign that we ought to be thinking about a primary opponent for Collins. If he’s not going to resign and trigger a special election for a less damaged candidate, his trial may drag on for so long that we’re once again at risk of losing a safe GOP seat in New York. If he’s going to spend his days proposing tax increases, that should make the need for such action even more urgent.
Is he related to Susan?
Collins: he’s been suckled on the teat of the GOPe.
Here’s ANOTHER idea, Chris. Resign NOW.
Hey I have an idea, how bout we pay for it with Congress salaries. They haven’t earned one penny, just take the money we spend for their salaries and all the glorious perks - should be enough to pay for a few bridges.
Maybe Stephen Collins from 7th Heaven.
Let's tax Congressional Salaries at 95% and require all non-spent campaign funds to be remitted to the Federal Treasury.
Oh, and make insider trading illegal for Congress.
And require all members of Congress to defend all sexual harassment lawsuits out of their own pocket: but to be assigned a Federal Lawyer from the Hazardous Waste group.
You missed one.
Chris. GFY!
Upstate NY is very similar to the former Eastern Europe.
One party rule, and the overriding philosophy is statism and progressivism. Many people work for the State at various levels, or are controlled by them, so they make up the controlling power of the state. The bounds of political debate are thus tightly bounded.
Of course, it strangles the economy, and people have to flee to get economic opportunity.
(posted on another thread for some relief;)
Gallons —
If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines 5 years ago, you Would have $49.00 today! If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers 5 years ago, you would have $0.00 today.
But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the Beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for the recycling refund, you would Have received $214.00. Based on the above, the best current investment.....
Plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-Keg.
And as a bonus...A recent study found the average American walks about 900 Miles a year. Another study found that on average Americans drink 22 Gallons of alcohol a year. That means that the average American gets
About 41 miles to the gallon!
Makes you damned proud to be an American!
No to gas increase. Airline...didn’t care. Most only fly a few times a year.
taking more and more and more and more and MORE of the American workers’ money away from them ... the Communist-Democrapic agenda is defeating us!
“In 1996 dollars, the Federal Highway Administration has calculated the "weighted rural and urban combined" costs per mile of interstate highway to be $20.6 million.”
What you said.
Here’s an idea: Primary this jerk and throw him out of the party.
We need a new party. Right after the Civil/Revolutionary War.
And this one won't be as pretty and as civilized as the last one.
I swear it’s the water in NY.
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