Posted on 08/31/2007 9:03:48 AM PDT by Froufrou
I completely agree...
Did you know the Golden Gate bridge was paid for decades agao. I think they cleared the debt in the 70s, but I’m not sure exactly when it happened. Since then they’ve continued to charge tolls. Those tolls far outstrip the maintenance costs.
You see, once a revenue stream, always a revenue stream!
That’s why I stand emphatically against toll roads. Enough is enough!
Ben, did your grandfather or dad and mine have to pay tolls to get roads built? The answer in most cases is no. Even where those tolls were used, the roads have been paid off decades ago. That’s the whole point.
The federal government has the dollars. They don’t want to direct those dollars to where they should go, so they come to you and I once again and ask us to fork over still more money to pay for the roads.
If I asked you to give me ten dollars for a baseball bat and you gave me the money, wouldn’t you be bent out of shape if I declined to give it to you? What would you say if I told you I donated the money to a local charity and you would have to pay again if you wanted the bat? I’ll tell you what you’d say, you’d say the same thing I’m saying right now.
We’ve paid for it already. Now give us the infrastructure damn it!
Tax bills originate in the House. Oberstar is chair of the trans committee. He is seeking a 5 cent increase in the fed gas tax. That is a 27% increase.
Texas gets back about 88% of every gas tax dollar sent to DC.
Okay Ben, then your own state leaders are the ones who have been ratholing the transportation funds for other projects.
Do a little study. Find out how many millions or billions of dollars you’re talking about, and make life miserable for them until they stop it.
Tell as many people as you can and start a groundswell of citizens who simply aren’t going to take it anymore.
Good luck to you.
Could you please explain why you want publicly owned infrastructure to become private property? A private individual can decide to close the road and build homes on it. They can also close the roads and sell them to the locals. Ben, you’re messing with fire here IMO.
If you look at the agenda of the U.N. as it relates to open spaces and highways, this isn’t all that far fetched.
It doesn't become private property. It is a lease awarded to the highest bidder.
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
Okay it’s a lease, but there you go again...
1. We’ve already been paying highway taxes for every year since those roads were new.
2. Now it’s time for them to be upgraded, and where’s the money
3. I expect construction fees to eat the funds, what I don’t expect is for there to be a middle-man sucking out some of those funds for profit.
4. Why would anyone want to lease land we already own, then pay that person more than we have to, to get the roads repaired?
This doesn’t make a lick of sense.
Just because Ronald Reagan like to privatize things, doesn’t make it right in all instances. We own the damn roads and have been paying funds for decades to keep them repaired and expanded. Where are those funds? What crooks stole them. Why are you and I expected to pay for it all over again? And why would I ever sign on to a plan that will not only force us to pay for it again, but will raise the price since a middle-man is going to be involved?
Just damn Ben. You couldn’t find a more expensive needless boondoggle to back if you spent your whole lifetime looking.
I’d rather the states “buy back” federal grants to schools so we can end this nonsensical federal intrusion into education.
Yes, they paid for them forty years ago.
Better.
CA has the highest gas taxes in the nation. Where's the money?
And my question is, just where in the constitution does it grant congress the power to spend federal taxes on projects such as that? I have looked in vain.
“I would be in favor of it if it were applied to new freeways, not ones already paid for by the taxpayers.”
Maybe you Californicators will fall for this dog and pony show, but Texans are getting sick of this stuff.
“Over the last 30 years my gas taxes have been reduced by two thirds.”
Well they usually cut bicycle riders some slack on their gas taxes.
I believe it is very telling that we are discussing this.
What does that tell us?
The airline industry is a horror after 9-11 and all the restrictions, let's take more joy out of traveling on roads too, shall we? /sarcasm
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