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Economy
The Tax That Dare Not Be Hiked
2014-12-09
[THEATLANTIC] In theory, advocates of an infusion of spending to fix the nation's crumbling roads and bridges have found the perfect political moment.

Drivers would barely notice the extra nickel they'd be forced initially to pay as a result of the tax hike
Fuel prices are plunging to their lowest level in years. The Highway Trust Fund is broke, and Congress faces a spring deadline to replenish it. The obvious answer—the only answer, according to many in Washington—is to raise the 18.4 cent-per-gallon gas tax, which hasn't gone up in more than 20 years. Since prices at the pump have dropped more than a dollar per gallon in some areas, drivers would barely notice the extra nickel they'd be forced initially to pay as a result of the tax hike.
Initially the income tax only applied to the 1%....
That wasn't true until recently: For years, the pocketbook punch of the Great Recession combined with gas prices that peaked above $4 made an increase both politically and economically untenable.
Posted by:Fred

#6  The Highway Trust Fund is broke

That's why people don't want to repair the highways.
Posted by: gorb   2014-12-09 11:43  

#5  The fact that the tax hasn't gone up in 20 years implies it's okay if it goes up regularly. The guy's arguments would have a lot more force if the tax had gone down when prices went up. Instead it's the same old call for more taxes from the same old set of social engineers. Notice that since we have a new oil boom the argument's not for conservation but for maintenance that should have been done but wasn't.
Posted by: Fred   2014-12-09 11:42  

#4  In addition to pilferage at both the federal and state levels, the tax take is down due to federal vehicle mileage mandates. You didn't know irony was a fuel additive, did you?
Posted by: SteveS   2014-12-09 11:07  

#3  As P2k noted, the Highway Trust Fund is empty precisely because, just like Social Security, the politicians have replaced real money with worthless IOU's. Raising the gas tax would have exactly zero effect on improving highway infrastructure, since they'd just add the increased revenue to their insatiable "entitlement" pile.
Posted by: PBMcL   2014-12-09 10:49  

#2  This is a tax that makes more sense than most. Revenues are nominally directed to an area of need, and one that is related to the tax. Prices are down, so tax increase would not accelerate an instability. And if taxing something means you will get less of it (energy consumption), then that isn't all bad either. Plus, alternate energy projects would suffer less if conventional prices were stable and high.
Posted by: Glenmore   2014-12-09 08:39  

#1  The Highway Trust Fund is broke

Cause all the two bit pols on both sides of the aisles have raided it for everything but sustaining the infrastructure.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2014-12-09 08:36  

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