Words from the web
There is some talk in Congress about raising the gax tax, noting the current gas tax of 18.5 cents hasn’t been raised in 20 years. Some say the tax only raises $35 billion a year when $53 billion is needed for annual construction and repair costs. Would you be willing to pay more in federal gas taxes for better highways and bridges? What about tolling roads and highways as a way to raise money?
“Given that a fair amount of our congress people have their hands in the pockets of the oil industry, I see this as a ploy to raise the price even more; the reasons that the price of gas rises are always ridiculously unfounded. I can already see how this would be rationalized to the consumer — “we had to raise gas prices $2 because of a two-cent tax increase.”
“Cut some of the other garbage out of the federal budget and use it to fix the roads. Foreign aid and military spending are good places to start.”
“No, no, no!”
“No I’m not willing to pay more in gas taxes. If all the money that’s already collected actually went to fixing the roads instead of lining pockets there would be no need to raise taxes. As far as raising tolls on roads and highways, we saw how that played out with the turnpike commission. Additionally, the tolls never go away. Again, refer to when the turnpike was built and tolls were to be charged for X amount of years until the road was paid for. The next excuse was they needed the tolls to maintain the road.”
“Spot on.”
“Instead of raising the gas tax, why don’t they just use the money collected on all oil and gas sold in this country given to the oil companies. That tax was enacted way back in 1976 to help the oil company’s find oil here in this country, so we weren’t held hostage to OPIC after the first oil embargo. That’s the $40 billion the oil companies get every year and mysteriously no one knows why. That law was never repealed.
“Yeah, let’s bash the oil companies. First, they make about 7-8 cents per gallon or about 2 percent profit. Most companies at 2 percent profit margins eventually go out of business. ExxonMobil over the past 20 years made approx an 8 percent total profit per year. Yes, surprise, ExxonMobil is in the business to make a profit.”
“Yes, I said a mileage tax. I would have a scaled mileage tax for the lighter cars vs the Hummer crowd butthat’s about it.”