Momentum builds in Congress for raising the federal gas tax

[Suzanimal]

We went from Gasoline-Tax Increase Finds Little Support (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...Little-Support) to Momentum builds in Congress for raising the federal gas tax rather quickly.

Oh I forgot, it's not a tax, it's a "user fee".

Record-low gas prices across the U.S. have given rise to fresh talk in Washington of raising the federal gas tax for the first time in over 20 years, with leading Republicans now saying a hike must not be ruled out.

The GOP has long resisted calls from business leaders and others to boost the 18.4 cent-per-gallon tax as a way to pay for upgrades to the nation’s crumbling roads and bridges.

Yet in recent days, senior Senate Republicans have said they want to keep options open and that "nothing is off the table" when weighing the best mechanisms to pay to finance infrastructure projects.

"I just think that option is there, it's clearly one of the options," said Sen. Inhofe (R-Okla.), new chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the third-ranking Senate Republican, also said they were open to the possibility of raising the tax.

Democratic leaders in both chambers of Congress, meanwhile, declared this week that “now is the time” for an increase.

While major obstacles stand in the way — namely the House of Representatives —business groups believe there is a real chance to raise the tax in the final two years of the Obama administration.

“Comments this week from Sens. Inhofe, Hatch and Thune signal a growing recognition that the gas tax is a fair and consistent way to fund our infrastructure needs,” Association of Equipment Manufacturers spokesman Michael O’Brien said in an interview on Thursday.

Democrats have typically been more open to the idea of hiking the gas tax, but it’s the shift in Republicans' tone that is drawing more attention to the possibility.

Inhofe argues lawmakers "don't have a choice" but to consider raising the gas tax, which he says is more accurately called a "user fee" — a characterization the founder of the conservative Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist, has yet to sign off on.

Americans for Tax Reform said it is still opposed to the idea of increasing the gas tax, despite the recent decline in fuel prices.

“Before Congress even thinks about asking Americans to pay higher prices at the pump, it should make sure that the $33 billion the federal government collects annually from drivers is spent efficiently,” the anti-tax group said in a statement that was provided to The Hill.


The tax reform group, however, did not say whether it would consider a gas tax hike this year a violation of its anti-tax pledge, which is signed by almost every Republican in the nation who runs for federal office.

Inhofe said he has a response to those who may pushback against considering the fee as a viable option.

"I remind my conservative friends, and people who ask the question about maybe as a part of a package having to increase the user fees, that this is what we are supposed to be doing," Inhofe told The Hill in a brief interview.

"The user fee is very, very popular. The evidence of that is a lot of states are doing that on their own because 'well if the federal government won't do it we've got to do something about the roads,'" Inhofe said.

Thune (R-S.D.) isn't outright for raising the tax, but stuck by comments he made during an interview with "Fox News Sunday, saying "we have to look at all options."

Thune noted that he doesn't think a proposal to increase the tax would garner enough votes in Congress, "unless it's done in the context of the broader tax reform debate."

"That is not my preference for how to fix this infrastructure issue," Thune added.

But if its floated, he said "you would you have to reduce taxes somewhere else, you'd have to provide some tax relief."

Similarly, Hatch (R-Utah) said that some Republicans could be enticed to back a gas tax increase if it was paired with tax cuts elsewhere.

"Personally, I think we're going to have to change the rhetoric on that," Hatch said Thursday.

"People who use the highways ought to pay for them," Hatch added. "That's a small price to pay to have the best highway system in the world. And that may be where we're going to have to go."

A transportation industry source told The Hill that the comments from lawmakers indicated a new willingness to consider increasing gas taxes were one of “a few significant things that happened” that happened recently.

“Most obviously, the price of gas and oil is likely to stay low for a long time, giving lawmakers some leeway to act on this,” the source said. “Even hardcore conservatives like Sen. Inhofe realize we need a long-transportation bill and that temporary patches are not helping.”

...

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-env...r-gas-tax-hike

[acptulsa]

We went from Gasoline-Tax Increase Finds Little Support (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...Little-Support) to Momentum builds in Congress for raising the federal gas tax rather quickly.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-env...r-gas-tax-hike

One House member taking the brib--er, I mean changing his or her mind is a regular groundswell in the fertile imagination of The Hill.

Assuming The Hill approves, of course. No shift in momentum could ever cause the Hill to realize there's a bill to audit the Fed...

[Brett85]

And of course "conservative Republicans" in Congress come to the conclusion that our infrastructure is crumbling because the gas tax is too low, rather than coming to the conclusion that our infrastructure is crumbling because we've been spending the last 15 years building infrastructure in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[jclay2]

“Most obviously, the price of gas and oil is likely to stay low for a long time, giving lawmakers some leeway to act on this,” the source said. “Even hardcore conservatives like Sen. Inhofe realize we need a long-transportation bill and that temporary patches are not helping.”

These people are absolutely infuriating. They have turned problem/reaction/solution on its head. Since when did low gas prices become a problem that needed solving. Just more evidence that their purpose is to reduce the standard of living.

[Working Poor]

grrrrrr

[Pauls' Revere]

three products which are price inelastic:

1) Gasoline
2) Cigarettes
3) Alcohol

[ILUVRP]

they don't spend the tax money they get now from gasoline on highways .

[Southron]

The lower and middle classes finally get a break and they are looking to undo it.

[ILUVRP]

that's not even counting farm tractors and combines ( 4-5 gal/hr ) , truckers 8-10 gal/hr , they are getting a break also , the DOD uses about $14 billion fuel/yr , at least they don't have to pay taxes on it .

i find it very hard to type on the keyboard as tears from my eyes drip on the keys watching cnbc ah's crying about the low price of crude , it's getting down to $40/ba where i have said many time is where it belongs , it may over shoot and go to the mid 30's and gasoline to $1.40-$1.50/ga .

congress is full of ah's .

[Weston White]

The Nation has roads and bridges? I thought only the several states have roads and bridges and that is what DMV related vehicle registration and license fees are namely designed to cover?

[Ronin Truth]

Is overwhelming popularity of taxpayer excitement building the tax increase momentum in CONgress?

[jmdrake]

What a crock! So we give the GOP the house and senate and the first thing they want to do is increase taxes? And, supposedly, this is because "businesses" want this? Here's something else to consider. With gasoline prices low more people will drive. How many times have you thought "Hey, I'll stay close to home for vacation this year because gas prices are too high." With more people driving, more gallons of gas are sold. With more gallons of gas sold, more gas taxes are collected. If the tax is raised, less people will drive so less tax may ultimately be collected. Also more people will decide to buy electric cars which pay no gasoline tax at all. (Queue idiot republicans pushing for "tax by mile" and the end of privacy in travel).

Here's an idea. T.C. is already on it. Stop spending all this money on the sticking GWOT and GWOD. (Global war on terror and global war on drugs). Use that money to fix the infrastructure. Oh, and start building rubberized roads that don't have to be repaired all the time anyway. http://www.clemson.edu/ces/arts/benefitsofRA.html

[Ronin Truth]

BS, du jour!

[Suzanimal]

Oh good grief...

Why It’s Time to Raise the Federal Tax on Gasoline

wenty-two years ago, when the price of gas at the pump was $1 a gallon and a movie ticket was $4, Congress saw fit to set the gasoline tax at 18.4 cents a gallon. The idea was to ensure enough funds for the Federal Highway Trust Fund to keep our roads and bridges in good repair. Today, while almost all other prices have soared, the gas tax hasn’t budged, and the trust fund is depleted. With world oil prices crashing, we have a unique opportunity to raise the gas tax, replenish the trust fund, leverage private-sector financing and leave the U.S. consumer far better off than just a few weeks ago — all at the same time.
A number of lawmakers and senators from both parties are beginning to explore this idea. The new chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, Republican John Thune of South Dakota, said on Fox News on Jan. 4 that raising the federal gas tax was among the options to replenish the trust fund. A month earlier, Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon proposed a 15-cent hike in the gas tax to raise an estimated $170 billion over 10 years.
Back in 1993, the 18.4-cents a gallon tax represented roughly 40 percent of the then-prevailing cost of a gallon of petroleum on world markets. The world price of petroleum has more than tripled since then, so that the unchanged gas tax has declined to around 12 percent of the world petroleum price for a gallon of gas. With highway and mass transit costs rising along with other costs, the federal gas tax no longer provides the trust fund with enough money to address the essential needs of the federal land transport system.
For the past decade, Congress has made up the shortfall in two ways. First, it has used general revenues or accounting gimmicks to cover part of the gap. The Congressional Budget Office recently projected the cumulative shortfall over the coming decade will reach around $160 billion. Second, and much more ominously, Congress has seriously delayed the maintenance of the country’s roads, bridges and mass transit systems. The American Society of Civil Engineers has regularly given the public transport infrastructure a grade somewhere between “poor” and “failing,” with an estimated backlog of some $1 trillion of needed investment.
The recent sharp decline in world petroleum prices allows us to accomplish several vital national transportation and energy goals while leaving consumers far better off. World oil prices have declined by around $60 per barrel, and by roughly $1.40 per gallon in the U.S. since June 2014. By raising the gasoline tax 35 cents a gallon — bringing the total tax to 53.4 cents per gallon — consumers would still keep three-fourths of the recent windfall savings, while the U.S. government would recoup around $50 billion per year, or $500 billion over a decade, enough to close the financing gap on the trust fund while also making a down payment on the huge arrears on maintenance of the federal transportation system.

....

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/sto...#ixzz3PMrCUjeT


and now this happens...

1 confirmed dead, 1 injured in I-75 overpass collapse

...
Officials said they were launching an investigation into the bridge's ratings.

In 2013, the bridge received a sufficiency rating of 74.7 (lower than in 2011).

It is considered "functionally obsolete," which means it does not meet current design standards. That categorization is not a measure of its structural integrity and was likely put into place due to the lack of emergency breakdown lanes.

Data for 2014 won't be available until March or April.

Initial investigations reveals that an excavator was being operated on top of the bridge, but officials are still working to determine what triggered the collapse.

...

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news...outh/22031429/

[Madison320]

What happens when the temporary factors that are keeping as prices low reverse and gas hits $10 a gallon? Are they going to lower the tax?

[Suzanimal]

What happens when the temporary factors that are keeping as prices low reverse and gas hits $10 a gallon? Are they going to lower the tax?

[oyarde]

What happens when the temporary factors that are keeping as prices low reverse and gas hits $10 a gallon? Are they going to lower the tax?

No , they will not , which is why no tax increases can be allowed .

[JakeH]

https://eads.usaid.gov/gbk/data/fast_facts.cfm

•The United States remained the world's largest bilateral donor, obligating approximately $48.4 billion—$31.2 billion in economic assistance and $17.2 billion in military assistance. By comparison, the United States obligated $30.7 billion and $18.3 billion, respectively, in FY2011.
•Of the $31.2 billion in obligated U.S. economic assistance, $19.1 billion went to 182 countries; the rest was obligated to non-specified regions. Afghanistan received the most, approximately $3.3 billion, while Brunei received the least, just $3,950.
•The U.S. disbursed $19.0 billion in economic assistance to 184 countries; it disbursed $14.2 billion in military assistance to 142 countries.

Hey, I just found almost $50B that we can use to repair our roads without raising taxes a single penny!

[phill4paul]

https://eads.usaid.gov/gbk/data/fast_facts.cfm



Hey, I just found almost $50B that we can use to repair our roads without raising taxes a single penny!

Amazing where monies for improvements can be found if one only takes a second to look. +rep.

[oyarde]

Personally , I believe the state tax collected on fuel , sales tax on fuel, registration fees, county taxes , property taxes etc, where I live are enough to take care of the roads , if not , slash the $#@! out of the school systems and balance it there .

[VIDEODROME]

Stop building Battleships and Aircraft Carriers we don't need.

[Spikender]

Personally , I believe the state tax collected on fuel , sales tax on fuel, registration fees, county taxes , property taxes etc, where I live are enough to take care of the roads , if not , slash the $#@! out of the school systems and balance it there .

It's not about the roads or infrastructure.

It's never been about roads or infrastructure.

It's all about taking our money and showing the "taxpayers" AKA Fed Cattle Herd who's still in charge. That money won't be spent on roads or infrastructure except as a token gesture.

[Suzanimal]

Raise the gas tax. A lot.

For 32 years I’ve been advocating a major tax on petroleum. I’ve got as much chance this time around as did Don Quixote with windmills. But I shall tilt my lance once more.

The only time you can even think of proposing a gas tax increase is when oil prices are at rock bottom. When I last suggested the idea six years ago, oil was selling at $40 a barrel. It eventually rose back to $110. It’s now around $48. Correspondingly, the price at the pump has fallen in the last three months by more than a dollar to about $2.20 per gallon.

As a result, some in Congress are talking about a 10- or 20-cent hike in the federal tax to use for infrastructure spending. Right idea, wrong policy. The hike should not be 10 cents but $1. And the proceeds should not be spent by, or even entrusted to, the government. They should be immediately and entirely returned to the consumer by means of a cut in the Social Security tax.

The average American buys about 12 gallons of gas a week. Washington would be soaking him for $12 in extra taxes. Washington should therefore simultaneously reduce everyone’s FICA tax by $12 a week. Thus the average driver is left harmless. He receives a $12-per-week FICA bonus that he can spend on gasoline if he wants — or anything else. If he chooses to drive less, it puts money in his pocket. (The unemployed would have the $12 added to their unemployment insurance; the elderly, to their Social Security check.)

The point of the $1 gas tax increase is not to feed the maw of a government raking in $3 trillion a year. The point is exclusively to alter incentives — to reduce the disincentive for work (the Social Security tax) and to increase the disincentive to consume gasoline.

It’s win-win. Employment taxes are a drag on job creation. Reducing them not only promotes growth but advances fairness, FICA being a regressive tax that hits the middle and working classes far more than the rich.

As for oil, we remain the world champion consumer. We burn more than 20 percent of global output, almost twice as much as the next nearest gas guzzler, China.

A $1 gas tax increase would constrain oil consumption in two ways. In the short run, by curbing driving. In the long run, by altering car-buying habits. A return to gas-guzzling land yachts occurs every time gasoline prices plunge. A high gas tax encourages demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles. Constrained U.S. consumption — combined with already huge increases in U.S. production — would continue to apply enormous downward pressure on oil prices.

A tax is the best way to improve fuel efficiency. Today we do it through rigid regulations, the so-called CAFE standards imposed on carmakers. They are forced to manufacture acres of unsellable cars in order to meet an arbitrary, bureaucratic “fleet” gas-consumption average.

This is nuts. If you simply set a higher price point for gasoline, buyers will do the sorting on their own, choosing fuel efficiency just as they do when the world price is high. The beauty of the tax — as a substitute for a high world price — is that the incentive for fuel efficiency remains, but the extra money collected at the pump goes right back into the U.S. economy (and to the citizenry through the revenue-neutral FICA rebate) instead of being shipped overseas to Russia, Venezuela, Iran and other unsavories.

Which is a geopolitical coup. Cheap oil is the most effective and efficient instrument known to man for weakening these oil-dependent miscreants.

And finally, lower consumption reduces pollution and greenhouse gases. The reduction of traditional pollutants, though relatively minor, is an undeniable gain. And even for global warming skeptics, there’s no reason not to welcome a benign measure that induces prudential reductions in CO2 emissions.

The unexpected and unpredicted collapse of oil prices gives us a unique opportunity to maintain our good luck through a simple, revenue-neutral measure to help prevent the perennial price spikes that follow the fool’s paradise of ultra-cheap oil.

We’ve blown this chance at least three times since the 1980s. As former French foreign minister Jean François-Poncet said a quarter-century ago, “It’s hard to take seriously that a nation has deep problems if they can be fixed with a 50-cent-a-gallon” — 90 cents in today’s money — “gasoline tax.” Let’s not blow it again.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...3d5_story.html

[Suzanimal]

As gas prices drops, states under increased pressure to hike taxes to replenish transportation funds

Governors and legislatures across the country are considering increasing their state tax on gasoline, amid a combination of falling pump prices and depleted transportation-construction funds.

At least eight states have proposed increasing their gas tax, as Washington also looks for ways to find money for highway and transit projects.

Recently falling gas prices have made the situation more urgent. But state and federal coffers that pay for such projects have been moving deeper into the red for years as Americans drive less, vehicles are more fuel efficient and construction costs have increased.

Still, motorists appear resistant to a tax hike, despite gas prices at a roughly six-year low and state taxes on gasoline in some cases having not been increased in the past 20 years.

The situation also presents a dilemma for elected officials.

They are responsible for keeping roads and bridges safe and fulfilling pressing needs to build more transportation infrastructure but must make the politically unpopular request for higher taxes to help meet those demands.

In New Jersey, for example, a poll released this week by Farleigh Dickenson University’s Public Mind found respondents opposed increasing gas taxes by a more than two-to-one margin, 68-to-24 percent.

The pollsters said residents see the need for road repairs but want policymakers to look beyond “overtaxed wallets” to find the revenue.

“It’s a calculation not without risk,” New Jersey Assemblyman John Wisniewski said on Wednesday. “But we are flirting with disaster by not investing in infrastructure.”

Wisniewski, a Democrat, has a plan to increase the state gas tax by 25 cents a gallon with amendments to ensure the money goes toward its intended purpose, instead of becoming slush fund revenue.

He told FoxNews.com that his argument before constituents would in part focus on the state’s urgent need for more rail tunnels underneath the Hudson River, to get commuters to work in New York, and the bridges across the state that are in desperate need of repair, including a county-owned one closed last week by the state because it was “structurally deficient.”

Gov. Chris Christie -- a potential 2016 White House candidate and one of several Republican governors in at least eight states considering a tax increase -- mentioned neither the gas tax nor transportation-funding issues last week in his State of the State address.

In addition to New Jersey, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah are considering increasing their state gas tax to bail out under-funded transportation budgets.

Louisiana transportation officials say they have a $12 billion backlog in road repairs, which has prompted lawmakers to consider several options to increase revenue, which includes replacing the gas tax with a sales tax on all fuels.

Republican governors in Iowa and Michigan have taken different approaches -- letting voters decide.

In Iowa, Gov. Terry Branstad says improving roads is a 2015 priority and is asking state lawmakers to help him craft a bipartisan solution. He has expressed openness to a plan in which each county holds a referendum to increase the sales tax on gas and diesel fuel by 1 percent.

“Without action, Iowa's roads and bridges face an uncertain future,” he said recently.

The existing 22-cents-a- gallon tax has remained unchanged since 1989.

In Michigan, Gov. Rick Snyder has agreed to spend an additional $1.3 billion a year for roads and other transportation program, if residents in a May 5 referendum vote to increase the sales tax from 6 to 7 percent, according to USA Today.

In Washington, D.C., the average price of gas was $2.50 a gallon when the new, Republican-controlled Congress convened earlier this month, which sparked talks about increasing the federal tax on gas and diesel fuel for the first time in more than 20 years.

But GOP leaders are tamping down expectations, leaving no clear solution to the funding problem.

"I don't know of any support for a gas tax increase in Congress," Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Senate GOP leader, recently said.

The federal tax on gas is 18.4 cents a gallon and 24.4 cents a gallon on diesel fuel. They were last increased in 1993.

Fuel taxes bring in about $34 billion a year to the federal Highway Trust Fund, but the government spends about $50 billion a year. The trust fund has been the main source of federal transportation aid to states for more than 60 years.

Congress has kept transportation programs teetering on the edge of insolvency since 2008 by repeatedly transferring just enough funds from the general treasury -- and making corresponding spending cuts elsewhere in the federal budget -- to meet obligations for a few more months or, in one case, as long as two years.

But finding acceptable spending cuts to offset the transfers gets more difficult each time.

Even President Obama has rejected the notion of a gas-tax increase, while calling on Congress to pursue other bipartisan measures to fund infrastructure.

Obama mentioned infrastructure five times in his State of the Union address on Tuesday and renewed his call to instead fund projects with revenue from eliminating tax “loopholes” for U.S. companies with overseas holdings.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015...-to-replenish/

[Dianne]

The lower and middle classes finally get a break and they are looking to undo it.

Which leads we to believe they artifically decreased prices to get their gas tax through. Next year we'll probably be back to $4.00 per gallon, but their tax will never go away.