The Patriot Post® · The Real Reasons Politicos Want to Raise the Gas Tax

Stephen Moore: “Every penny increase in the gas tax will take about $1 billion out of the wallets of consumers. So a 10-cent or 20-cent gas tax will take about $10 billion to $20 billion from consumers. The politicians like to point to studies by road builders and civil engineers that insist America’s infrastructure is crumbling and we must spend hundreds of billions of dollars to fix our roads, highways, bridges and airports. Now there’s an impartial jury. Who do you think is going to get all this money? … [Tenn. Senator Bob] Corker is right that America needs more roads and needs to fix the ones we have to reduce congestion and potholes. But this isn’t because the 18.4-cents-a-gallon gas tax raises too little money – $34 billion a year should be plenty and infrastructure spending is near an all-time high. The ‘stealing’ that is going on is from the trust fund. Congress siphons tax dollars away from roads to worthless mass transit systems with tiny ridership. Why should motorists see their gas tax dollars go to transit projects they don’t use? If Washington would simply devote all gas tax dollars to roads, we wouldn’t need a tax hike. … This won’t create jobs, it will destroy them in the oil patches in America. But maybe that’s the point. Even as the politicians in Washington crow about lower gas prices, they continue to do all they can to keep them high. Remember that next time you pull up to the pump.”