August 9, 2007
THE USES OF TRAGEDY:
Bush Against Raising Gas Tax (JENNIFER LOVEN, 8/09/07, AP)
A week after a deadly bridge collapse in Minneapolis, President Bush dismissed Thursday raising the federal gasoline tax to repair the nation's bridges at least until Congress changes the way it spends highway money."The way it seems to have worked is that each member on that (Transportation) committee gets to set his or her own priorities first," Bush said. "That's not the right way to prioritize the people's money. Before we raise taxes, which could affect economic growth, I would strongly urge the Congress to examine how they set priorities." [...]
The Democratic chairman of the House Transportation Committee proposed a 5-cent increase in the 18.3 cents-a-gallon federal gasoline tax to establish a new trust fund for repairing or replacing structurally deficient highway bridges.
More than 70,000 of the nation's bridges are rated structurally deficient, including the bridge that collapsed over the Mississippi River last Wednesday. The American Society of Civil Engineers says repairing them all would require spending at least $9.4 billion a year for 20 years. Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., says his tax-increase proposal would raise about $25 billion over three years.
Dedicating the funds certainly makes sense, as does raising the money faster rather than slower, in order to drive gas prices up. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 9, 2007 12:10 PM
Let's make it $.10 and get moving on it ASAP. There are more disasters just waiting to happen. Priortizing procedures can be established when the fund is established.
Just keep Stevens and Byrd far from the fund as a first priority.
Posted by: Genecis at August 9, 2007 12:40 PMFirst, $10 billion/year wouldn't be noticed. If that's really all it would take, then it's a no-brainer.
Second, no one would be able to see the effects of this bridge collapse on a plot of daily national driving deaths, would they?
Posted by: b at August 9, 2007 12:48 PM