Posted on 01/13/2015 2:11:14 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Gas prices are the lowest they've been in five years — a welcome relief for many drivers.
But now that fuel prices are falling, some lawmakers are talking in a serious way about raising the gas tax — Republican lawmakers.
The debate is at an early stage, and it’s fair to say House conservatives will hate the idea. But a few powerful GOP senators are signaling they're open to the idea. Even House Speaker John Boehner, who personally opposes raising the gas tax, hasn't ruled it out.
“Some Republicans in the Senate are speaking up,” says Todd Zwillich, The Takeaway's Washington correspondent. “[They’re saying] oil prices are low, the federal highway trust fund is dead broke and will be in the future, we have crumbling infrastructure, and we absolutely need reform.”
The current tax on gasoline, which hasn’t been raised since 1993, sits at 18.4 cents per gallon — 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel fuel. The revenue generated from the gas tax goes to the Highway Trust Fund, which was was established in 1956 and is the primary way that federal highway and transit programs are funded.
Because national road infrastructure is crumbling, and the highway trust fund is in a perennial state of financial crisis, several Republicans say it's time to raise the tax that Americans pay at the pump to repair roads and bridges.
Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) is proposing that the gas tax be raised six cents in 2016, six cents in 2017, and then be tied to inflation after that. But he’s not exactly calling it a gas tax.
Zwillich says GOP lawmakers like Corker are looking to rebrand the gas tax to avoid political backlash, saying that it is a “user fee” that drivers pay per gallon for using America’s highways, bridges and roads. But even that language change isn't a slam dunk.
“At the end of the day ... people aren’t going to jump out there and say they’re for a user fee,” Corker told Zwillich.
But though it’s a bit out of character for Republicans to get behind a tax increase, Corker told Zwillich that some GOP lawmakers are privately supporting a gas tax increase because people understand that the Highway Trust Fund and the nation’s infrastructure must “be dealt with.”
“[House Speaker John] Boehner and his spokespeople have said, ‘I’m against raising the gas tax,’” says Zwillich. “But he was asked specifically if it was off the table in any kind of tax reform deal and he has not ruled it out. That’s interesting. He could say, ‘That’s never going to happen,’ but he says, ‘I’m against it.’ And the term ‘user fee’ is important too.”
Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, the Republican chairman of the Finance Committee, the body that controls tax policy in the Senate, is also hoping to recast the gas tax in a new light.
“I think we’re going to change the rhetoric on that,” he says. “I would call it a user fee. I prefer not to increase taxes. To me that’s a user fee: People who use the highways ought to pay for them — that’s a small price to pay to have the best highway system in the world. That may be where we’ll have to go.”
In December, the US Department of Transportation noted that the highway fund was nearing insolvency. That's actually been the case for some time, but lawmakers are finally recognizing that something has to be done.
“Congress has been patching a hole in the Federal Highway Trust Fund,” Zwillich says. “It’s a deepening hole that Congress keeps shoveling money into. You could say that they could just stop doing that, but every district in every state in every locality in America has roads and bridges. There’s just no way to stop spending on it.”
Zwillich says Corker is pushing the gas tax as a way to permanently reform the trust fund — instead of just temporarily “patching the hole.” But other GOP lawmakers are pushing for other reforms that don’t include an increase in the gas tax.
“Let’s be honest: Even though Boehner hasn’t ruled it out, he’s going to get a lot of pushback from conservatives in the House — and that’s where tax policy is really written," Zwillich says.
Republican Congressman Devin Nunes of California, a member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, doesn’t believe that the House of Representatives will raise the gas tax — at least not anytime soon.
“California has the highest gas tax in the country, and the last thing I want to do is raise taxes on people, especially those who are low income,” Rep. Nunes says.
So will there be a showdown between House and Senate Republicans? Zwillich says it’s possible.
“This is a really serious debate that’s starting, and it’s Republicans that are doing it,” he says. “I think this is all about timing. There is a major tax reform effort in Congress coming down the pike — it might be worth a trillion dollars or more. Republicans and Democrats are spotting the opportunity and think there’s no time like now. With gas at $50 a barrel, they think they have to move.”
This story is based on an interview from PRI's The Takeaway, a public radio program that invites you to be part of the American conversation.
PING!
The slow, public suicide of the Republican Party continues.
Somebody remind me again why it was so imperative to vote for these jokers last NOV.
We do not need higher taxes of any kind - we need FAR less government.
Personally, I prefer to pay 20 to 50 cents per mile in tolls, rather than an extra penny or so per mile in gas taxes, since tolls aren’t taxes. So I’m probably with everyone else here...
How about cutting some of the ridiculous social welfare spending.
People can work.
>>Somebody remind me again why it was so imperative to vote for these jokers last NOV.
So they could feel safe to take off their masks and reveal the Progressive underneath. A new conservative party cannot even get off the ground as long as any middle class Americans still think the GOP supports them. The GOP is not the “party of Reagan”. He was an anomaly in a party of elitist Wall Street Progressive stooges.
These clowns are all about the rhetoric, charlatans, every one.
Using his logic I would call Corker not exactly a Liberal Republican Liar.
Don't you just love how career elected politicians who have likely not bought even as much as a gallon of gas from their own pockets in a few decades are real quick to tax others who are barely getting by? I wish I had a government expense account and fuel card too /sarcasm
Hey Porker how about stop using the current fuel taxes for non transportation uses. Next how about defunding the long time out of control feral federal agencies which made fuel prices soar like the EPA. DEFUND ETHANOL as well and rescind the program entirely. I'm certain many non essential agencies can be cut if not eliminated and hundreds of billions saved with a portion of those savings used to actually fix our roads. Gas will be going back up senator and when it hit's above $3 a gallon again YOUR tax will be part of the cause. The senators and Reps need to force government to live within our means.
These bastards spend four freaking TRILLION DOLLARS A YEAR,it’s never freaking enough!MORE MORE MORE,we need more money to fix the freaking roads?go f... yourself,
Any Republican who votes for more Middle Class taxes will be primaried in 2016. The gas tax is used for the Leftist dream of urban rail, not for fixing our roads. The states should keep more of their gas taxes to take care of their own roads. Send less to D.C. for vote buying.
There was a time when the highway trust fund was more of a slush fund for the politicians to play with. An honest history of Trust Fund use, and needs is missing. It looks like the low gas prices at the pump presents an opportunity to raise taxes to continue an inefficient and ineffective "management" of a lot of money by politicians.
If both Democrats and Republicans raise taxes, who can we rely on for fiscal responsibility and integrity?
We seriously doubt whether the highway trust fund has been managed other than by greedy politicians looking out for their own interests. The road infrastructure was crumbling in the 1970s. Where did the money go? No one knows.
I want an accounting of how every dollar of that "Trust Fund" was spent. If the revenue has been collected, but has been used on non-transportation spending, then the problem isn't with the collection of enough revenue.
They all need to be reminded of the “tax” increases now apparently mandatory under Crapcare.
I’ve always thought a national sales tax was at the top of the GOPe agenda but the Saudis may be helping create a rationale for a gas tax hike.
When our Republican controlled legislature and outgoing Republican Governor Tom Corbett signed off on a 28 cent a gallon gas tax hike late in 2013 it was backed by the Chamber of Commerce and the American Automobile Association.
Oh, watch out for a poster who’s going to try to take the heat off the Republicans by blaming the messenger, a liberal media organization.
“We need reform, LET’S RAISE TAXES!”
Someone should remind them that raising taxes =/= reform.
You "Pay by the Mile," suckers back up and think about how the U.S. is populated. The people in fly over country, thow a smaller percentage of the population, drive many more miles per year for basic necessities. For us in western North Dakota it can be 50 or 60 mile round trip for groceries. For clothing, vehicle or equipment repair, house hold furnishings, etc., it is 120 to 150 miles round trip. To go to the "Big City," of Bismarck or Miles City, MT it is 150 miles one way. Some ranchers will travel over 100 miles a day to feed and check cattle. These people already pay a gas tax for which they are not receiving value for their money. They receive bicycle paths and other nonsense. The government must manage existing funds more effectively, not go back to the well when their whims desire greater expenditure.
thow = though
Oh, for an edit function.
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