 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.
Repuke “Confederacy” = A Confederacy of Dunces !!!
If you want less government, just move to Somalia – they have NO government. How’s that working out for them.
Just a totally excellent subject to evaluate Federalism and its role in a modern society.
Do you want a National Highway System or not?
Oh No decries the Federal System and says that localities can do it just fine. His proof is to show that even under a Federal System that requires maintenance, its not being done. Surely once Ohio no longer sends its tax money to Wash DC and has to raise its own money for its own roads, they will swing into compliance just as in all other States Rights Issues?
BHWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! What a fricken idiot.
Ah Yea—other Teabaggers/Retards/Regressives/Flat Earthers—there is no reasonable alternative to the Federal Highway System and the taxing system that supports it. Tweak the system? Of course. Ohio looks like it needs some enforcement activities.
Silly Hoomans. And by silly hoomans, I mean: dumb asses.
Ha, ha.
VOTE ALL “NO NEW TAXES” POLITICIANS OUT OF OFFICE. They want roads to be a local issue and then not at all. Who doesn’t helicopter to real jobs?
#14
I agree that if you’re short sighted, projects like bike paths or light rail may not appear to have national benefits. However, if you view projects like that as a way to diversify our transportation infrastructure, thereby lessening our dependence on foreign oil, they do.
Also things like acid rain, and CO2 emissions are national and even global problems for which fossil fuel based transportation is a major contributor.
Help me out, people. I’m trying to compile the Top Ten list of great social, cultural and/or moral programs that have been put in place by the Republicans.
Here’s what I have so far:
1.
tj==there are programs that are necessary that are appropriate for Federal Taxation like the National Highway System that carries the commerce of America and handles X % of transportation needs.
Then there are more local concerns that are nice to encourage that have nothing to do with commerce that comprise .000X % of transportation needs.
Surely, while everything is connected to and affects everything else, truly different issues deserved to be treated differently?
yea, verily.
For all of you that think this is a good idea, where have you been for the last 3 months? The last great tea party idea was that we couldn’t raise the debt limit unless we cut spending. They won that game of chicken so that spending was cut and the debt limit was raised… But our credit rating was lowered and the stock market tanked. Great job.
Now they have an idea that will work even better. Abolish the gas tax, let the states pass new taxes, or not, to repair their roads as they see fit.
I don’t believe our country will survive many more tea party successes. I am positive the middle class will not.
Why would anyone think the fed gov is going to build a better road than a state or maintain it better? Oh, the Fed gov is bigger.
As I see it the Fed gov has reached a size at which it pretty much can’t do anything efficiently. It is to big not to fail.
The US now has a 3 party system. Democrats, Republicans and Tea Party.
Congress is not a majority for the Republicans – it’s a coalition.
My experience is that, as you move down from Federal to State, to Local levels in government, the people working at all job levels become progressively less smart. YMMV.
I’d expect states that have large populations will enact moderate gas tax increases (should federal funding dry up). States with small populations could put up BIG interstate tolls ($0.25 -$1.00 per mile), and or charge an ENTRY/EXIT FEE (like $10-$50). Also could see every Podunk town enacting its own toll. Yay! Let’s go back to the 1500s.
You wanted to drive to the Grand Canyon or through Utah, better bring lots of money for tolls cause those states have small populations.
If you don’t already know, tolls are a means to pay the system of toll collectors.
Whatever. Tea baggers like sucking it after the fact.
Anybody?
If you think the federal tax can be replaced by state gas taxes, then you failed Econ 101.
Small population states, which border large population states, would have much higher gas prices. So there would be gas smuggling betwen states.
The states would have to put in tolls so that black market gas wasn’t used
to defraud the smaller population state of the money needed to repair the roads.
Think gas smuggling wouldn’t happen? Then you haven’t lived near a border where alcohol and tabacco are taxed differently across state lines.
By “small population” I really mean low population density.
#31 Ah_Yea Have you driven on I-84 or I-81 in Pennsylvania? I-79 in PA? Or the portions of I-70 that are not part of the Pennsylvania Toll Road? All of these are in miserable shape.
How about I-70 in Ohio, or I-75, or I-71? Much, much better than the section you rode around Youngstown, Ohio you were referencing.
Did you drive the portion of I-80 in PA between around mile marker 255 and the New Jersey state line? A very poor stretch of Interstate with portions as bad as that around Youngstown.
To put it in scientific terms, your sample size is much to small to base an argument on.
#12 JCD The state of I-80 and its potholes has more to do with CalTrans and how they operate than anything else.
Alfie, Rick Perry needs to spend a little time in the spotlight. He’s about as articulate as a corn maze.
This presidential election is the Republican’s race to lose. And it looks like they’ll do just that.
#47, the small state can have a smaller gas tax to get all the people from the big state to cross the border for gas.
tj alternative transportation projects that don’t get used are a waste of money. The CO2 emissions saved are close to zero, especially with other countries using gasoline. If you are worried about foreign oil, then drill for oil domestically.
Buzz–I thought your list was quite complete. Exhaustive as a matter of fact. Why would anyone put even more time to the effort than you already have?
VOTE ALL “NO NEW TAXES” POLITICIANS OUT OF OFFICE.
MikeN, good point. But then the big state puts in a toll to control the loss across the state line.
Anti-tax conservatives simply MUST live a year in a place that doesn’t have taxes or regulations.
Somalia, Waziristan, rural Yemen.
I’ve spent maybe half a year, total, in places like that and they SUCK!
Those places are a total fulfillment of the conservative dream for America. No taxes. No regulations, No social safety net. Complete social Darwinism.
Most conservatives would be begging to be sent to Sweden after just a few weeks.
… and everything is absolutely local. If you want a new road, you and your neighbors have to build it. If you want to send your kid to school, you and your friends have to build and run it.
But no taxes!
That’s freedom, baby.
The Tea Party’s eventual goal is for NO GOVERNMENT. If that’s what you want, go for it.
#12
“This tax is collected then sent around back to the states..with BIG states like California not getting their share.”
Amen to that! It goes for most other gov’t expenditures too. The beggars are also choosers, and they complain about the unfairness of paying taxes to the Federal Government.
Thing is, I think there is a normative value to a national government. If all that infrastructure money stayed within the state we’d start hearing about “failed states” in no time.
A decently long road trip will indicate that failing states might already be a reality.
#8
“#3 asks: “how well does austerity work during recessions?”
Fiscal sanity is a lot better than…”
No it bloody isn’t! Government spending that tracks economic cycles brings lower results over time.
#55
The hook is that if you have good money in a no-rules environment then you are a GOD, assuming you have decent personal protection.
The GOP has sold outs for the rich on the idea that you, the voter might be rich one day. Now just pump up the wattage.
You’re absolutely right about the endpoint of the no-government idea. What the no-government boosters don’t get is that THEY would NEVER rise to the top of that system.
What I read most from our TEA swilling contingent is an amazing amount of inflexibility. It is because it is…
That kind of personality implicitly believes they would be the decision maker in these ideal worlds. I think it is only fair to assume you would be in a random role when trying to figure out how things should work.
#12 After a rethink.
The ultimate problem is assigning Senate committees and any other Senate powers by seniority. In a small state, a long-serving Senator is pretty much guaranteed to serve until death if he chooses, baring major fuck-up. Smaller media markets and fewer major endorsements guarantee that a small-state senator can so dominate a contest that no serious general election opponent will try, and no primary opponent will be noticed.
The Senate leadership should be more about who is an effective advocate for their party’s ideas. Right now a lot of the choice bits are available just because somebody has been sitting in the seat longer. Not good.
I think the Senate, and thus over-representation of low population areas is a terrible idea. If we scrap that then we are almost at scrapping the whole idea of the US.
Is there anything in the Constitution that says the excessive power that small population states wield through the Senate needs to be extended through internal Senate rules?
#52
Yes, alternative transportation projects that don’t get used ARE a waste of money. But what about the ones that do get used?
We have a relatively new light rail system in Minneapolis that was built with the help of Federal matching funds. Whether or not to build it was debated for decades. As it became clear it had a chance to become reality, Republicans flew in “experts” from all over the country to talk on radio shows and what not saying that systems like it never succeed. The ridership numbers were way too optimistic, etc., etc.
Guess what. They were wrong. It was a huge success. Ridership numbers far exceeded expectations. Very quickly the debate changed from “Should we build it?” to “Where should the next line go”.
There’s no way in hell that system would have ever been built without the help of Federal money.
By the same token there is some cycling infrastructure here that has been also built with the help of Federal funds. For the most part, that too has been a success with thousands of people getting to work each day on bikes. There are losers too. One bridge in particular cost a lot of money and looks really nice but I think the money could have been better spent on other projects.
So to me the answer is not to eliminate Federal funding for these types of projects but to have better oversight.
I have a buddy who runs a scraper in California. Makes $24 and hour…and $58 an hour for “stimulus” jobs. How many degreed professionals out there make anything close to $58 an hour!!!! I just lost my IT position making $18/hr. Yeah, the federal government and their unions need a slap in the face whether or not the interstate system makes sense.
What is your problem Americans ? You have been the most important economical and political power during more than 100 years, because your BIG, FAT, and GOOD government provided physical infrastructure, the most powerful army in the world, science, technology, education, etc. Why are you trying to destroy your own government ? Why are your following those fools that want to come back to the “founding fathers” times ? are you crazy ?
If you really believe that state bureaucracies are less bloated, inefficient and corrupt than federal ones, I have a bridge to sell you.
I know, let’s turn every path, sidewalk, lane, street, road, boulevard, parkway, highway, throughway and freeway into a toll road!
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“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.”
And letting the states handle this would improve the situation how?