Posted on 10/11/2010 6:43:51 PM PDT by topher
Two former transportation secretaries who recently co-chaired a panel that proposes gas tax hikes and user fees to pay for government transportation projects joined President Obama Monday as he called for a $50 billion immediate investment in roads, rails and runways.
And while the president has not endorsed the proposals by ex-officials Norm Mineta and Samuel Skinner, some industry experts insist gas prices will have to rise to pay for the grand plans.
"These reforms and innovations will not be cheap," said AAA President Robert Darbelnet. "All funding options must be on the table -- including an increase in the federal gasoline tax."
The current federal gas tax, which has remained unchanged since 1993, is 18.4 cents per gallon. Combined with state and other taxes, Americans pay an average of 48 cents extra on every gallon of gasoline -- any increase in the federal tax, based on proposals floated in the past, could easily push the price of regular gas to $3 a gallon.
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(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
But the trillion dollar stimulus was about pork and not doing anything but flushing tax dollars down a toilet.
After all, they must protect slimy snails from getting run over by cars...
Well at least the Cap and Trade Bill is dead. I just saw the Democrat for Senate in W. Va. shoot it between the eyes with a Deer Rifle. On Hannity.
This is BS— We are going to Tax government and it is going to REDUCE IT’S SIZE and the freeloading parasites are history!! YESSSSSSS!
The bastard really does want to sink us into a depression!
FUBO POS POTUS!
I’d take a 25 cent hit on gasoline ANY DAY, rather than selling off our highways to foreign companies (like Cintra) for monopoly-protected tolling, as has been done in Illinois, Indiana, and Texas (at a minimum). And this is EXACTLY what will happen if we don’t finance our highways through the gas tax.
But I DEFINITELY want that money going to highways, and not to “carpool lanes” or other other clever ideas - just regular highway lanes. Then I’m good.
(sorry if I offend people that want foreign ownership of our infrastructure, mileage-based tolling [with transponders], or some other utopian idea - I just want my kids to drive on the same highways, with the same freedoms and privacy, that I was blessed to be able to do)
Remember the $4.00/gallon gas in May of 2008?
Candidate Øbama said he didn’t see anything wrong with $4.00 gas, only that the price went up so quickly.
Trickle,trickle.
I'd guess it is more $ than they will raise with increased taxes.....and if we don't change the congress this election, all those dollars will disappear too.
We're screwed again.
The price of gasoline was up 10-cents-per-gallon this week. Thanks Obama!
There’s a toll road in Tampa. Its maybe 30 miles long and they collect in excess of $100 Million every single year.
I know roads are expensive but they aren’t that expensive.
This Obama clown just refuses to understand that we don’t need more spending and we’re Taxed enough already.
What are we supposed to do?Give the government one hundred percent of our pay check.
Don’t forget - Gasoline at the pump went up $1 a gallon after Obama was elected.
And it has stayed there.
And another point to remember:
The rebuilding of infrastructure was supposed to be part of the original stimulus. Recall all the talk abouit projects being “shovel ready”? But we found out that so much of what has been spent was wasted on meaningless research grants and other payoffs to political supporters and very little actually went to physical improvements and the creation of real jobs.
Considering the fact that the Gulf has been shutdown & all the other restrictions on drilling everywhere else.
Just one bad winter or larger Middle East problems will drive oil above $100/barrel or $4/gal gas or home heating oil.
This is when the economy will really go south.
“There’s a toll road in Tampa. Its maybe 30 miles long and they collect in excess of $100 Million every single year.
I know roads are expensive but they aren’t that expensive.”
That is EXACTLY the problem conveniently overlooked by tolling backers - maintaining a freeway costs next to nothing (per vehicle mile) - expanding it does cost money, putting in a tolling system and an army of toll collectors, accountants, and administrators cost money (quite a bit), and running it as a MONOPOLY to squeeze out as much taxpayer money as possible costs a ton of money (but doesn’t seem to bother governors Perry and Daniels).
But even so, there are still the libertarian air heads on this site that think having a foreign-owned highway, able to charge tolls as high as the market will bear, with MONOPOLY protection, is just fine.
...so I have to keep posting when this topic comes up.
So let’s get this down... they want to spend money we don’t have on “improving the roads” so people can “get to work better on better roads”. But then, the people who will use the roads will be hit with even higher gas taxes. These same people cannot afford the current price of gas, but now they’ll be out looking for work on better roads. The purpose of this road improvement is make work, and it is designed to keep more people unemployed. You cannot tax what is not paid for. People can’t pay, then they won’t pay. No increased revenue, more lost jobs, higher taxes. All part of the plan.
100 percent agree.
The fuel tax should be used exclusively for highways. Liquid asphalt is double what it was just a few years ago.
With crude in the $80s and better mileage in most vehicles, the road fund should be secured.
The overwhelming majority—approaching the entirety—of the existing federal gasoline and diesel fuel tax goes to pork barrel projects unrelated to highway capacity expansion or highway maintenance and repair, compensation for bureaucrats, unnecessary “construction” projects like repaving the same road every year (with different potholes this time), and regulatory compliance costs.
An additional federal fuel tax likely will find the same home. Expect the Congress to discern that all roads will fall apart, the economy will collapse, and the terrorists will win unless we spend tens of billions of dollars immediately on such minutiae as a new bus museum in Minnesota, a fishing dock on some lake in Montana, a new fence at a remote airport without regular flights, a palatial post office, and whatever other projects that distinguished members of Congress quite coincidentally believe will enhance their fundraising prospects for the next election.
wondering if Hussein has hear of the Taxed Enough Already Party...TEA Party. Folks lets make sure Hussein and the Congress hear us loud and clear on NOV 2nd.
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