First, the federal gas tax is $0.184 / gallon, not 18%.
Second, how do you propose to pay for the roads if not through the gas tax? Although I have problems with the way some of the gas tax money is skimmed off for public transit boondoggles and how some of the money is sequestered in the highway trust fund to hide part of the deficit, in general the gas tax is the fairest tax we have. If you burn gasoline you are 99% likely to be using it to drive on the government owned roads. Those who drive the most pay the most. This is opposed to using the "from each according to his ability" income tax or an inefficient tax per mile requiring government inspectors to check your odometer regularly.
OK, fair enough, I got the #’s wrong. My point was that there are congressmen and women in front of the tv cameras daily, blaming oil companies as the only culprit in the rising costs of gas. If the feds are THAT worried about it, quit with the $0.184 tax per gallon for a while.
You are correct about that. Good point (by you and others). It’s almost a true consumption tax - really the only taxes we should have.
Gas tax is needed to keep the roads repaired. I would like to know what in he** Pennsylvania does with the tax? Maryland and NJ have lower gas tax and better roads. Rendell
is making things worse. Looking at the gas pumps around this county show the wgts and measure employees have not run a check on them in a long time. You don’t even know if the numbers are correct.