 Another Republican the Kool Aid Party hates |
If the debt-ceiling showdown made your blood boil, if the shutdown of air-traffic-control work related to the airline-ticket tax drove you crazy, then you should unplug your TV and power down your computer in late September, as the deadline for extension of the federal gasoline tax draws near.
…A sizable chunk of Republicans, led by Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Representative Jeff Flake of Arizona, want to abolish the tax that pays for the federal highway program and replace the whole system with one overseen by individual states.
This insurgency, inspired by the Tea Party, reflects flawed thinking on economics, transportation policy and even American history.
Like many other excise taxes, the federal highway tax comes up for periodic renewal, which is usually noncontroversial. But not this time. If Congress doesn’t act to renew the tax by Sept. 30, gas stations all over the country have to stop collecting it; the highway trust fund will never get the money; and new work on federal highway projects will come screeching to a halt.
A delay of just 10 days in renewing the tax would mean the permanent loss of $1 billion in highway funding (and layoffs for thousands of workers). Longer delays would measurably increase the national unemployment rate.
…Tea Partiers and their allies on this issue haven’t given up the fight over ending the tax; if they can’t abolish it outright just yet, they’ll push to allow states to opt out.
RTFA. More details, info, Congressional ennui.
If Govt refuses to cut back on their excessive spending, then a cut back on their mother’s milk (taxes) is more than justified. It is mandatory.
2nd paragraph of article says: “Because while President Barack Obama and most experts [experts like Paul Krugman?] are pushing for a greater federal investment in roads and infrastructure to create jobs and strengthen our economy,… ”
More of Obama’s famous shovel-ready jobs???
Those wacky, Oklahomoans!
benson: how well does austerity work during recessions?
If you’re already paying a tax and it’s renewed, is that a tax increase?
“and new work on federal highway projects will come screeching to a halt.”
Sound like I should invest in earplug stocks…
Does anyone truly believe that the Federal Government will let this happen?
This is a typical partisan article.
nuff’ said!
As someone who normally sides with the Tea Party, sorry, they’ve gotten this one wrong.
The interstate system is, and should remain, completely 100% the responsibility of the Federal government. Its primary purpose is to promote interstate commerce as well as provide the means to defend our country, two concepts that are well within the purview of the Feds.
Granted, foreign invasion is an extremely unlikely (almost unthinkable) scenario in this day and age, but we still need the ability to quickly move large masses of troops and equipment when cargo planes or ships aren’t as practical.
#3,
After the “Arab Spring,” I’m allowed to say I’m pro-riot-and-scare-the-crap-out-of-government.
Viva la revolucion!
#3 asks: “how well does austerity work during recessions?”
Fiscal sanity is a lot better than a $900 billion handout to fellow Democrat cronies and govt unions in the disguise of a shovel-ready stimulus job making program.
Check out what we are facing with this 60 second doorbell video:
http://goo.gl/lc6Oq
I say let the Tea Bagg…, uh, Tea Partiers have their way.
Shut down the interstates … all of them … the instant that the interstate funding gets cut.
You don’t pay, you don’t use. Period.
You were going to use that stretch of road, that bridge, that dam? Think again,
Get some bulldozers out there to tear up the on and off ramps. Its barely safe now so its really not safe if there’s nobody to maintain the system, is it?
Its the last thing that the highway employees and the highway police will do for a while so let them have some fun. Throw down a couple of overpasses for good measure.
Let commerce grind to a halt. (Think Wal*Mart will be accepting any deliveries from either coasts? Think again. The train depots are going to get used again and we’ll see how rotten it has become since we let that system deteriorate.)
The departing highway workers, highway cops, heavy load haulers will have some time to blockade the on and off ramps and hand out leaflets.
Make sure that every blockage and demolition is clearly labeled with the names, email addresses and congressional office phone numbers of the members who voted to defund the highways so that the people who are stuck in traffic along the back roads know exactly who is to blame.
Bring it all to a grinding halt.
How about they pass it, but combined with a repeal of Davis Bacon union wage rules. Let’s see if Obama is willing to throw away federal jobs and contracts to non-union minority workers so the government can spend more money and payoff unions.
It’s becoming clearer and clearer as time goes on that the Tea Partiers and the think tanks and tycoons behind them are trying to destroy the U.S. government.
Don’t most office-holders swear an oath to defend the U.S. against “all enemies, foreign and domestic”?
This is bullcrap!! This tax is collected then sent around back to the states..with BIG states like California not getting their share. They steal our money.
Highway 80 (Interstate 80 to you) is filled with potholes while similar roads in Alabama are pristine.
Only someone from a Podunk state will go along with the old ways. The states should pay for their own damn roads.
Um, why is this bad? Ok, so the Feds do not collect the tax. Governors of the affected states call their legislatures into session and pass a local tax to collect what the states deem necessary to maintain a system or establish toll roads in certain situations.
This is a crap article. Pure hysteria and no substance. States are not going to stop maintaining Interstates. If they cannot afford them it seems more likely that they will do something similar to the Kansas Turnpike Authority.
States like MN and CA get screwed by the Federal Government. While that is different than the gas tax which is one account, MN in total looses 28 cents on the dollar to the Feds and all we get back is tyranny! I say make this happen now.
On a certain level the Interstate highway system is a scam that redirects funds away from necessary local projects. I doubt my one example is the only one.
Locally, I will cite the construction of I-90 in MN, it is practically usless in its alignment along the route of (former) US Highway 16. However, a more useful route, US Highway 14 still has considerable sections needing upgrades. I-90 barely used in comparison, continues sucking down maintenance and stimulus funds.
#6
Since when were Intestates 100% Federal Responsibility? Interstate is only a designation that indicates that the road is built to a set of requirements as defined by AASHTO.
As usual the “Progressives” have proven their insanity.
See Eideard, Uncle Patso, and msbpodcast for proof.
Now, of course, MikeN – who is not insane (unlike those mentioned above) makes a good point.
Has the Highway trust fund become an engine of Government cronyism?
Of course it has.
Additionally, here is rational thought.
Restoring Trust in the Highway Trust Fund.
“All of this perfectly exemplifies the loss of national purpose and focus in the federal transportation program. When legislation in 1956 expanded the federal government’s role in transportation in order to create the Interstate system, the Interstates were a clear national project with national
benefits. Traffic calming in Tampa or Boise, or bike paths in Buffalo or Phoenix, do not provide national benefits and should not be federally funded. Paying for them with highway user fees also increasingly abolishes the users-pay/users-benefit principle and increasingly transforms fuel taxes from user fees to transportation taxes paid by one group to provide for benefits for other groups.”
http://tinyurl.com/3wowq2c
I doubt these “Progressives” can understand this simple concept that the Highway Trust Fund, which everyone who buys gas puts into, is being used to pay bribes to Government approved unions who are working on projects which have nothing to do with the National Highway System.
It’s pretty simple. So simple a “Progressive” could understand. Probably not.
dittmv has given an excellent and sane post. Good job.
“On a certain level the Interstate highway system is a scam that redirects funds away from necessary local projects.”
Peel back the layers and you will certainly discover that the money went to Unions and Democratic supporters who lobbied for projects which have no purpose.
What is the answer? Local spending and accountability.
Union membership is at it’s lowest point in 70 years and declining. It’s not an issue driving anything (no pun intended).
You can probably kiss road construction in Montana, the Dakotas, Wyoming, Iowa, and other sparsely populated areas goodbye since those states aren’t able to collect enough gasoline taxes on their own to cover their road constuction costs. But maybe now California and New York will be able to fix their crappy roads since they won’t have to send their cash to the red states.
#19, Alfred:
Just out of curiosity, if this passes will you be willing to have your taxes raised in your state to pay for maintaining the highways, or are you opposed to state and local taxes for anything as well?
If the answer is no taxes there either, you have no right to complain if your highways start falling apart.
You get what you don’t pay for.
Just for the record, this article was written by
“a former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden and senior adviser to President Barack Obama on the Recovery Act…”
So it’s bound to be totally accurate.
LotsaLuck, LOL!!
#12: I agree! Every State for themselves on this issue. If your roads continue to suck afterwards, buy a second set of rims and tires and leave it behind.
The battle cry of the New Republic: “Let’s save money through unemployment!”
Only a liberal puke would be in favor of unfair taxes.
Who says roadway construction will come to a halt and jobs will be lost?
Oh, that right! Idiot “Progressives” and those idiots who believe them.
Biden and Barack says so, therefore it must be true!
(Haven’t learned anything in the past 3 years??)
How about: “Highway funds diverted and wasted in supporting an overbloated and inefficient Federal Government are now being spent by smaller, more efficient state Governments resulting in MORE JOBS and better service”.
There you go “Progressives”. It’s now in writing so you can believe it.
I wonder what would happen if you want to drive in a neighboring state. Or through a town. Or shire.
This Teabagger cancer costing untold billions in additional interest and more government inefficiency will soon come full circle.
The citizens have spoke that they want effective government. Looking forward where all the rookie Teabaggers in Congress get sent packing. The sheeple got what they deserved by voting in these loons.
Foobar. What do you mean, “I wonder what would happen”.
You don’t have to wonder, it’s already here!
I just drove the 80 Interstate between Pennsylvania and Ohio. On the Penn side the roads were wonderful. Just 10 feet on the Ohio side the roads were horrible.
Same highway. Same stretch. You could SEE the road change in front of you. And it’s a federal interstate. (can we say “diverted funds, anyone?)
Shovel ready! Change you can believe in!
They’ve been spending the gas tax to repair the roads? I sure can’t see much evidence of that from here.
Hey, lets defund everything.
Who needs it anyway, right?
All that stuff about coordination and cooperation between the states is bunk, right? Just so much hokum, right?
Think of it, you’ll be living in paradise.
Pay no taxes.
Pay no insurance.
Pay no money for anything. (All that the federal government was doing for you will disappear, not immediately but it will be gone in less time than you think, clean water, clean air, clean land, clean food, all for the sake of saving some money from/for the poor, [because the rich have isolated and exempted themselves by wrangling and chicanery.])
And why not? Who needs the park service?
All that land that had been expropriated for the free interstate system will become revenue producing toll roads.
But like all for-profit propositions, maintenance is an expense and expenses are best deferred until some bridge falls into a river. (Do the math… ? people killed in a bridge collapse cost ? $ in law suits [which will take years to settle and any settlement will be appealed and reduced anyway versus cold hard cash going on today.] The little guy is going to take it in the shorts again.)
The wealth of this country (cash, bonds, real-estate,) has all gone to less than 10,000 people anyway.
This has been the greatest redistribution of wealth in history and it happened at internet speed in a matter of a decade.
It has happened at a breathtaking rate and its accelerating.
What is really remarkable is that it happened without any one firing a shot.
The rich now control over 85% of the wealth in this country.
The remaining 360,000,000 of you can squabble over the table scraps the 10,000 or so rich and the 400 or so really rich leave for you.
Tell me what you’re federal government does for you, nothing right?
Why should you pay, right?
Then you’ll get what you deserve…
Just what you deserve…
Exactly what you deserve…
I’ll be living in a civilized country over there, while you spiral down into a buch of ignorant, greedy, immature hicks over here.
Its no skin off of my teeth…
This will be the first time that a world power has descended to such a level in less than one generation under the full view of everyone else on the planet. From #1 or #2 in everything down to #16, #19, #39 … What’s your yard stick?
Mao Ze Dong must be laughing in his grave.
The Repukes ultimate goal is to SELL OFF all “public” highways to PROFITEERS WHO WILL OBSCENE GOUGE TOLLS OUT OF ALL DRIVERS !!! Repukes just love a MONOPOLY !!! They are trying to do that with Municipal Water supplies as well – another wet dream of theirs !!! Now, if they could only figure out how to meter the air we breathe !!!