Scoop: Trump endorses 25-cent gas tax hike

[demmiblue]

Source: Axios

President Trump endorsed a 25-cent gas tax hike to pay for infrastructure at a White House meeting this morning with senior administration officials and members of Congress from both parties, according to two sources with direct knowledge. Trump also said he was open to other ways to pay for infrastructure, according to a source with direct knowledge.

Reality check: Trump’s gas tax idea appears dead on arrival. Republicans aren’t about to hike taxes for the Trump voters driving their pickup trucks to work every day. It’s a regressive tax and in Republicans’ minds would undo some of working and middle class tax cuts they just passed.

The gas tax is currently 18.4 cents a gallon for gas and 24.4 cents for diesel. It was last raised in 1993.

Per a White House official:

Read more: https://www.axios.com/trump-endorsed-25-cent-gas-tax-hike-1518638785-7554ca1b-6111-4276-b6e5-b42929e0b453.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twsocialshare&utm_campaign=organic

[forgotmylogin]

1. Hm. It's like they suddenly find the US doesn't have enough income...

...I wonder why that is.

[area51]

32. +1 n/t

[Hermit-The-Prog]

2. tax dollars not gallons

The gas tax was dumb before TrumPutin opened his hole about it.

Taxing by the gallon is an incentive to raise the price.
Tax the dollars and it removes that incentive, self-adjusts to the market, and self-adjusts for better fuel efficiency.

[bucolic_frolic]

6. So you get better mileage with a flat percentage tax?

How will my engine know what to do? Do you have to input the gas price, or just the tax rate?

[Hermit-The-Prog]

13. price

Roads need to be repaired whether your vehicle uses a gallon per mile or 128 miles per gallon.

Some engines are approaching theoretical maximum efficiency, but we're going to have a mix for many years. Taxing a gallon means that as the average fuel efficiency goes up, revenue for roads goes down. Taxing a percentage of price buffers that somewhat. (It won't help maintain the highways when there are more EVs than ICEs).

[bucolic_frolic]

15. How many more miles per gallon do you get when they raise or lower the gas price?

[bucolic_frolic]

27. You're the one who made the claim that you get better gas mileage when the price goes up or down

I'm thinking the technology and miles per gallon are actually independent of the price per gallon of gas

[Hermit-The-Prog]

28. no, i did not

[bucolic_frolic]

30. "self-adjusts for better fuel efficiency."

[Hermit-The-Prog]

38. sorry

The tax self-adjusts -- because it is a percentage of the price, rather than a fixed amount per gallon.

I have deleted a previous post as it was unduly harsh and I apologize to you for that and for not being clear.

[SoCalMusicLover]

3. Regressive Tax Increase

Guess who gets Fucked?

[kysrsoze]

20. Yup. On the backs of those with less disposable income.

Would we expect anything else?

[JDC]

44. Exactly right

[Stallion]

45. There Goes Your Tax Break Suckers

[joshcryer]

49. Yup.

And of course this will impact the poor the most.

[ProfessorGAC]

53. Oh, Don't Worry

Economists (the lazy ones) don't include energy costs in the inflation number, because it's too hard. Inflation will still be low because, obviously, paying more money for the exact same product, isn't really inflation.

[marybourg]

4. Tomorrow he'll deny that he ever did such a thing. nt

[unblock]

5. lol dead on arrival is right. what an idiot!

having nothing to do with the public policy wisdom of a gas tax hike, it's politically idiotic.

yeah, major tax cuts for the rich but pay more to get to your minimum wage job, fools!

[ToxMarz]

7. Sorry Netflix

Now that teacher in Pennsylvania who was happy with her $1.50 a week extra after Repuke tax cuts won't have it to pay for her Netflix subcription anymore

[getagrip_already]

12. it was costco.....

not netflix. But now she won't have the money to drive there, let alone have a membership.

[ToxMarz]

22. You are correct

[joshcryer]

50. She'll have to cut off Netflix and her internet.

And resort to ramen noodles. This hike will add up very very quickly.

[VMA131Marine]

8. $0.25/gal will raise about $45B per year

It's not nothing, but the deferred maintenance backlog of the US transportation system is in the trillions of dollars. I don't know if this is enough even to prevent getting further behind.

[The Mouth]

41. ALL gas taxes should pay for infrastructure and nothing but.

with roads as the first priority. Still regressive, but let's have a balance between who pays and who benefits (although it could be argued that using such income stream to pay for mass transit reduces strain and stress on roads, I still think that we who *HAVE* to drive should benefit from these damned taxes).

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

9. People with electric cars are happy with this solution

New roads to drive on, and those folks using gasoline get to pay for them. I wonder if the diesel tax is going up, in Trump's world.

[BigmanPigman]

10. CA does this already. We had a 12 cent a gallon tax increase.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-senate-on-gas-1491508666-htmlstory.html

It is very expensive to live here.

[DeminPennswoods]

37. PA has a 50 cent a gallon gas tax

It is helping with the backlog of road/bridge maintenance and would help more, but our legislature chooses also to pay for State Police operations from this fund. PA SP are gobbling up increasing amounts of the extra money.

[BigmanPigman]

39. Isn't that always the way?!?!

We increase taxes to give more money to public schools after it passes with an overwhelming number of votes, yet when it come down to it the schools actually end up getting about 25% and the rest goes "elsewhere".

[DeminPennswoods]

48. It's puzzling to me why the state police

don't have a seperate budget line item. The Rs are always proclaiming their love of all things law enforcement. PA governors have line item veto authority, but I doubt any would use that on a state police funding line.

[redstatebluegirl]

11. So combine that with our state's proposal for a six cent

Increase we are at 31 cents. We fill up 4 times per month so 31times ten tines 4 is 12.40.

[getagrip_already]

14. I think it was lawrence odonnel who covered it last night.....

The trucking companies support the increase because it is supposed to fund infrastructure maintenance.

Mconnel has said publically no chance; not even a penny. The gop will go ballistic over this. They want to fund infrastructure by cutting benefits, not raising taxes.

It's what they do. Trump probably just saw it on fox. They will turn it around.

[underpants]

17. I'm glad I read your post

I would have thought trucking and logistics would be very much against this. I guess they'll just pass the cost on to their clients.

[BeyondGeography]

16. So Ma and Pa Kettle's tax cut savings get eaten up by a downpayment for privatized infrastructure

Brilliant.

[underpants]

18. Yyeeeep

Spot on

[ffr]

19. That should go swimmingly with the corrupt conservative base.

[BumRushDaShow]

21. This will make PA's gas tax, already highest in the nation, even higher

Ours was done for the same reason (infrastructure) but also included using it as a dedicated funding source for mass transit (notably SEPTA here in Philly metro), and came with increases in other PennDOT fees as well.

Pennsylvania had highest gas tax in August
The Tribune-Review | Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017, 4:24 p.m.

The state-inflicted pain at Pennsylvania's gas pumps in August was twice the national average, according to the Energy Information Administration.

At 59.3 cents per gallon, the birthplace of the petroleum industry had the highest state tax on gasoline. Alaska had the lowest at 8.95 cents per gallon. The average state tax was 27.85 cents per gallon.

These are the amounts the states add to the federal gasoline tax, which has been 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993, the agency said.

Pennsylvania's tax on gasoline increased 7.9 cents per gallon from August 2016, which put it in the second tier of states in terms of increases. The state's 15.4 percent increase compares to an average increase of 4.5 percent among all states.

http://triblive.com/business/headlines/12802325-74/pennsylvania-had-highest-gas-tax-in-august

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=33172

[vercetti2021]

24. I don't like this

I can't afford a ton as it is. More on gas is going to kill my disposable income.

[keithbvadu2]

42. That's the idea! Less disposable income for you/us... more for Trump's billionaires.

[Drahthaardogs]

25. Oh Please God let him pass this!

This will end GOP rule for fifty years!

[Bengus81]

55. It didn't end GOP rule when gas was $4-5 per gallon under Bush....

[John Fante]

26. There goes that secretary's Costco membership.

[Yavin4]

29. And just like that, the Trump tax cut vanishes.

Voila!

[djacq]

31. Tax Cut to a Tax Hike

“Stupid Is as Stupid Does”

[iluvtennis]

33. All Humpty Dumpty & the GOP thugs needed to do was hold back 1% of the corporate tax cut. Evil

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

34. Gas taxes hit the poor disproportionately

Looks like Trump is going to be a tax-raising president after all. He'll take credit for improvements in the infrastructure (which, being privatized, we'll pay for in tolls) without pointing out he raised taxes to do it.

We can't let him get to message this. #Tax-raisingTrump

[beachbum bob]

35. that $1.50 increase in the paycheck quickly gone. A big tax on lower and middleclass americans who

actually have to drive to work.

Yep, the taxcut being quickly replaced with huge tax increases elsewhere as predicted

[marble falls]

36. If it really goes into infrastructure as opposed to say Brown and Root, I can live with that...

and while we're at it, why not add a $.05 cent auto drivers insurance premium to every gallon of gas for medical insurance and vehicle insurance. Everybody pays, everybody drives insured.

[turbinetree]

40. So did this pinhead think that this will cover his plane rides....................

after all aviation gas is expensive, or his trying to figure a way to siphon it off into his back pocket.....................


November 2018 cannot get fast enough

[Honeycombe8]

43. Of COURSE...since that would disproportionately affect the poor & middle class.

Anytime you have something that we ALL pay the same for, that cost is a larger % of income. So it "costs" you more, in terms of effect on your expenses, when you have less money or income.

[zentrum]

46. Value added taxes

….always hurt the middle and working class the most. They always want to use it when they cut income taxes.

Can you imagine Ryan's happy worker who will get an extra $1.50 a week and now may have to pay 25cents per gallon more? That extra quarter per gallon will be a fortune for her. May cost her her job if she can't afford to get to work.

[jmowreader]

47. In an offhand kind of way, I hope they do this

It will have several benefits.

The most obvious is it'll provide money to fix the roads. We sure as hell aren't going to get that from general revenues, and the road network is bad enough right now that the gas tax money currently coming in won't solve the problems we have.

Then there's the perception of the thing. If the price of gasoline suddenly jumps from $3.25 per gallon to $3.50 per gallon, a lot of people are going to think, "maybe we really DON'T need that one-ton pickup we've had for five years that gets 12 mpg and still doesn't have one scratch in the bed."

But the best part is the political ramifications. If Trump signs this bill, it will end the Republican Party's ability to get elected for a very, very long time. The federal gasoline tax is 18.4 cents per gallon, and the federal diesel tax is 24.4. Trump, and any Republican who votes for this bill, will NOT be able to live down "he voted for (or "he signed&quot the largest tax hike in your lifetime." (The increase will be 236 percent on gas and 202 percent on diesel.) When President Clinton raised the gas tax by less than a nickel a gallon, the deplorables were at the White House gates with pitchforks and tiki torches; imagine what'll happen when Trump goes five times better.

[democratisphere]

51. Looks like his so-called tax cut will partially pay for all of his new tax increases.

Pea and shell game frauds. Another day in Paradise!

[SWBTATTReg]

52. Fact is, repairs must be done...and someone has to pay somehow...

Last edited Thu Feb 15, 2018, 08:53 AM - Edit history (1)

When we pay this increase in federal gas tax as individuals, it'll be 25 cents more per gallon. Unfortunately, as individuals, we can't pass the increase downstream, it's us ultimately paying the tax. Businesses can pass the tax downstream, to once again, individuals/us. So in any event, we get slammed with the tax, basically a double set of taxes coming at us.

However, there is more to this issue too. As increases in taxes occurs, businesses will either absorb higher costs or pass along the higher costs downstream in increased prices. They also get to write off the higher federal gas taxes. Thus, we get a 3-fold impact of these increased federal gas taxes (businesses, higher costs of goods, individuals).

I see inflation kicking in. I also see a tightening of budgets across the entire land, and perhaps adjustments will occur (people adjust habits, buy less gas, cut down on the purchase of discretionary items). Unfortunate (or fortunate, on how you look) in the estimated amount of fed. gas taxes collected will be less! What then? Will they increase fed. gas taxes again?

A vicious cycle. Ironic since tRUMP is favoring the fossil fuels industry. Also seems to discriminate against those who rely on driving for an income. Perhaps this will usher in the use of more electric vehicles, solar, etc. Kind of a total turnaround by tRUMP in some weird way after he slammed on tariffs on solar, etc.

[Bengus81]

54. Total BS if ANYONE thinks that all of that 25 cents PLUS the 18 we pay now will go for roads,airport

That shit will be used to offset MASSIVE revenue losses for YEARS from this Corporate tax give away. Hell,we pay 24 cents per gallon in Kansas for the State part and Republican Gov Brokeback had NO PROBLEM along with the Republican legislature as to RAIDING that fund to try and offset ZERO tax rates for Corporations and they got away with it for FOUR YEARS.

It go so bad that KDOT couldn't even take BIDS because they would be meaningless by the time you could actually do the const.