Gas tax holiday talk dies; Congress eyes increase instead

[elehhhhna]

By JIM ABRAMS

Dream of gas tax holiday faltered over job losses
WASHINGTON — The political vision of a summer gas tax holiday died a quick death in Congress, losing to a view that federal excise taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel will have to go up if they go anywhere.

Despite calls from the presidential campaign trail for a Memorial Day-to-Labor Day tax freeze, lawmakers quickly concluded — with a prod from the construction industry — that having $9 billion less to spend on highways could create a pre-election specter of thousands of lost jobs.

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.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5896826.html

[alarimer]

1. Fuck that shit.

Make us pay more? That's bullshit. They need a tax on the OBSCEBE profits the oil companies are making.

I hate Congress- every last one of those useless assholes.

[pampango]

2. They ought to consider a tax that would only kick in if the price of oil/gas

drop way below current rates. That would keep the oil companies and oil exporting countries from spiking the price down to destroy alternative energy projects, then increasing them again when the alternatives are wiped out.

[carlyhippy]

3. haha, did you read the comments below the story in the link?

the DEMS are to blame, sic em.....

Carly

[Tutonic]

4. Impeachment needs to begin today.

I'll be happy to pay 25 cents more for infrastructure repairs when george Bush is impeached for taking us into a needless war.

The article said: The nonpartisan National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission concluded in a report this year that the U.S. needs to spend $225 billion annually over the next 50 years to create a highway and transit system capable of sustaining strong economic growth. Current spending, at federal, state and local levels, is about $90 billion a year.


Why would the Administration allow a crumbling infrastructure to continue to fall into an abyss. The Administration has lead us into an endless war and taken monies necessary for infrastructure repair out of cities and States and diverted it to Blackwater types--who can then brag about their high tech security gadgets paid for by the dead spiraling into the Mississippi River at St. Paul, Minnesota, overrun downtowns in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and flooded neighborhoods in New Orleans. Isn't this gross negligence worthy of impeachment?