Help is on the Way. By Raising the Gas Tax.

• Author: Ben Keeler
• Filed under: Congress, National Landscape 2008, Obama, Sutton / Potter
• Date: Jul 20,2008

Thank you Senator Kerry for the "help is on the way" quote.

It is only the middle of July, but we have a nomination in the "Dumbest Political Move of 2008" category.

"Lawmakers Could Consider Gas Tax Hike, After Gas Tax Holiday Fails."

Now, lawmakers quietly are talking about raising fuel taxes by a dime from the current 18.4 cents a gallon on gasoline and 24.3 cents on diesel fuel. (My note: That is a 54% increase.)

Jim Oberstar, D-MN, said his committee is working on the next long-term highway bill. He estimated it will take between $450 billion and $500 billion over six years to address safety and congestion issues with highways, bridges and transit systems.

"We'll put all things on the table," Oberstar said, but the gas tax 'is the cornerstone.' Nothing else will work without the underpinning of the higher user fee gas tax."

That is right. At this time of record gas prices with Americans clamoring for any relief they can get, congressional Democrats are now talking about raising the gas tax. The reason they are collecting less money is because people are driving less because prices are so high. So what do these geniuses want to do? Raise the gas tax making it more expensive to drive. Apparently lacking any economic basics, they will get a quick lesson soon enough if this goes through.

The fuel taxes in question here go into the Highway Trust Fund. That money is used for road construction, road repair, and mass transit. The 52-year-old fund is heading into the red, no surprise for a government run program.

Guess what percentage of the last transportation bill was earmarks? 12%. Maybe that is one small reason the highway fund is short on money - because it is used for things like bike paths in Oberstar's district and for a California mule and packer museum. I don't even know what that means.

Two other thoughts crossed my mind while reading this story.

1. Because the trust fund is already looking at a looming shortfall, it would have moved project cancellations into the construction season," DeFazio, D-OR, said in an interview. He said it was "highly unlikely" that oil companies would have passed savings along to consumers.

Oh, but they won't pass Betty Sutton supported "windfall profit taxes" on to consumers, Congressman DeFazio? Ms. Sutton, what say you?

2. The fuel taxes go into the Highway Trust Fund, which is used for road construction and repair and mass transit. Depriving the 52-year-old Highway Trust Fund of $9 billion at a time when it is heading into the red doomed the notion of a gas tax holiday in Congress.

Why is Congress interested in this trust fund? They didn't want to do anything to fix social security which is going broke as well. No big deal I suppose. We'll just spend 99% of the budget on entitlements.

I know Obama is happy that gas prices went up, but most of us are not….

So what do his pals in Congress want to do? Raise taxes on gasoline. Actually, that isn't fair. Obama probably barely knows anyone in the House since he has basically been campaigning since he was elected to the Senate.

Morons. Any connection to the real world at all? Republicans should let this come to a vote and mount an old school filibuster if it ever got out of the House to the Senate somehow, but I don't think Reid and Pelosi are even that dumb. If the Republicans don't hammer the Democrats over this night and day, they are insane and don't care about ever getting back in power. This reminds me of John Dingell's proposed 50 cent gas tax. which we talked about in March, and that was when prices were at a "reasonable" $3 / gallon.