Posted on 02/02/2018 1:12:19 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A Republican congressman says the U.S. government should significantly raise the gas tax in order to fund President Donald Trump's ambitious infrastructure plan.
Rep. Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania told Bloomberg TV that the tax should be increased by 15 cents per gallon of gasoline.
The current rate is 18.4 cents, and hasn't seen a hike since 1993.
Shuster said Thursday at a Republican congressional retreat in West Virginia that for the average American, a 15-cent increase would equal the cost of 'a cup of coffee a week that they might have to forgo.'
'Or if you're a Starbucks person, half a cup of coffee ... or it's two bottles of water.'
Filling up a typical 14-gallon gas tank under Shuster's proposed tax scheme would cost an extra $2.10.
Americans who fill up once a week would pay about $109 per year in added taxes.
Trump told Republican lawmakers on Thursday that 'we can rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, and we will,' promising to launch projects that are completed 'under budget and ahead of schedule.'
The White House has proposed a total of $200 billion in federal spending on infrastructure over 10 years, betting that it will spur an additional $1.5 trillion in private-sector investment.
Democrats want $1 trillion from the Treasury as a starting point.
Either way, Congress will have to find a way to pay for it.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce last month urged the White House to back a much larger increase of 25 cents per gallon, projecting that it would raise $375 billion over the course of a decade.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Republican congressman says feds should nearly DOUBLE gasoline tax to pay for Trump's infrastructure agenda
Schuster should visit Calif and see what we’re paying for gas. The price per gallon goes down, the Calif gas taxes go up. Fed taxes go up, Calif taxes will go up to match.
Burden importers with bearing this cost, not individual citizens many of whom have no choice but to pay whatever the price is for gasoline. I’m sure somebody would say this is inflationary, lol.
Have you considered moving to an American state?
Shooting for higher gas prices is NOT the way to get re-elected. It’s crowding toward $3.00/gallon here in central Wisconsin. I’d rather see a tax placed on anyone who claims to be a demodummie.
Fuel tax for roadway infrastructure is essentially consumer tax.
They don’t call it the Stupid Party for nuthin...
Trump should institute a new rule- every new tax proposal requires five old taxes to be retired. Since it is difficult to retire old taxes will stop new tax proposals
He is wrong.
Another face palm moment brought to us by a member of the best and brightest of Challenged Republicans.
Some folks are so stupid, you wonder how they figured out how to open their eyes, before they closed them to make decisions.
Hey brain-trust, the idea was to increase money in the private sector, not figure out new ways to 'donate' it to the federal government. What part of that do you not grasp?
PA has a shitload of trucking, and it’s increasing due to the growing distribution centers. Heavy load on the highway maintenance.
BTW, your chart fails to show the cost of fuel. And it’s much cheaper in PA than NY and NJ.
The money for infrastructure should be coming out of the incomes of the top 1%, who have benefited so much in recent decades, not from ordinary drivers who are mostly struggling. Many Americans are struggling to keep a car on the road with the high cost of gas, taxes, more and higher tolls, insurance and excessive fines and overzealous enforcement of petty traffic laws for the purpose of collecting revenue.
Raising the gas tax is anti-populist. This is not the direction we want to go in if we want to do well in 2018 and 2020.
That tax just gets passed to the consumer with markup.
I'd rather see gas tax or similar used to pay for transportation infrastructure, than some other tax.
Where do you think the gas tax goes? At least imported goods are largely a discretionary purchase that can be avoided. Also, margin pressure will eat some of it, Walmart and the like do not accept price increases from vendors, they pay what they say they will pay.
Remember this A-hole next November.
The critical thing to understand is that Congressman Shuster intends to retire this year.
Maybe he and the many other retiring members plan to pass a big gas tax increase before their terms of office end.
Maybe they will sneak it in after the 2018 elections in a lame duck session.
Infrastructure yes, tax hike no.
Maybe the trick is that they will pass the tax hike after the election is over in a lame duck session at the end of this election year 2018.
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