Tipsheet

"America is One Big Pothole": LaHood Wants to Raise the Gas Tax

The former head of the Department of Transportation seems a bit confused about which party he represented at one time and now, has clearly joined the party of the President he worked under instead. With money running out in the Trust Fund that takes care of the highways and other mass transit projects, Mr. LaHood has picked up President Obama’s main budgeting technique: raise taxes to find the money.

What’s even funnier is that LaHood stated, “Because people are driving less, driving more fuel-efficient cars, and the gas tax hasn’t been raised in many years” we are running out of money in the Highway Trust Fund. Isn’t that exactly what the government wanted us to do? How much money was spent by the government in order to promote these fuel-efficient vehicles and support public transportation? And now that we have actually adapted to these ideas, we are going to be punished with higher taxes. That just doesn’t make sense Mr. LaHood.

Also, if people are driving less, why are the roads in need of so many repairs? Clearly Mr. LaHood is a tad bit confused.

The gas tax has not been increased since 1993. But that seems to make sense. We pay billions of dollars each year in tolls, fees and state and local gas taxes that are earmarked for infrastructure projects that are not factored into the Highway Trust Fund. And what about all the stimulus money that went to road projects? According to LaHood, “America is one big pothole.” Well isn’t he nice?

Until Mr. LaHood can come up with some honest facts and serious concerns about the roads in this country, I remain hopeful that our representatives will stop this from actually happening. The amount of taxes we already pay should more than suffice for whatever road projects LaHood has in mind.