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Title: Sugar in the Tank
Source:
American Prospect
URL Source: http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=sugar_in_the_tank
Published: Jul 26, 2011
Author: Ben Adler
Post Date: 2011-07-26 14:37:08 by go65
Keywords: None
Views: 2570
Comments: 4
When Representative John Mica, a Republican from Florida and chair of the House Transportation Committee released his proposal for the overdue Surface Transportation Reauthorization bill earlier this month, liberals condemned the plan’s lack of investment in infrastructure. They missed, however, a bigger failing: Transportation spending is not just underfunded in this country; it’s broken, and we can’t afford to wait another six years to fix it. House Republicans, though, haven’t proposed sensible transportation policy changes, even ones conservatives should support. Smart-growth advocates, unions, and environmentalists had been excited by President Barack Obama’s $556 billion proposal for the six-year transportation bill, but Mica’s plan offers a mere $230 billion because Republicans are unwilling to raise the gasoline tax, which pays for federal transportation spending. They are also unwilling to create new sources of funding such as a tax on vehicle miles traveled (this would be achieved using GPS monitoring). But gasoline-tax revenues are actually declining, not just holding steady, because of lower usage during the recession and increasing vehicle efficiency. Whereas President George W. Bush was happy to cover the shortfall between gas-tax revenues and authorized transportation spending by taking money from general funds, these newly principled Republicans won’t do that. So per-year spending on transportation would decline from $52 billion to $35 billion per year when it should be going up to meet our growing needs.
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#1. To: jwpegler (#0)
(Edited)
Ping - the GOP vision for America: Tagline for sale - inquire within
Totalitarian thug! Totally illegal violation of 4th amendment civil rights. Stick your GPS monitor where the sun don't shine!
Obama's watch stopped on 24 May 2008, but he's been too busy smoking crack to notice.
When the government is getting all the money they need, and PISSING IT AWAY ON "green" vehicles, "mass-transit" schemes and unwanted Amtrak lines, only a moron socialist would say the only way to fix it is to steal MORE money from the productive class, and give it to the UNPRODUCTIVE class... I.e., the government. It used to be the leftists that had bumper-stickers that said things like "Question Authority.' Today they follow slogans from 1984: War is peace. They blindly LOVE Big Brother. They believe competition, pride & profiting from ones labor, are evil things to be banished. Stephen King observed, "The beauty of religion mania is that it has the power to explain everything... [so] logic can be happily tossed out the window. This describes socialists. They will ignore logic and "common sense." They will ignore REALITY. Because THEY are religious zealots... THEIR God... is the STATE.
He won't let some minor thing like the Constitution get in the way of his whack- job political/enviroNAZI agenda... Hell, calling him a JBT is a compliment!
It used to be the leftists that had bumper-stickers that said things like "Question Authority.' Today they follow slogans from 1984: War is peace. They blindly LOVE Big Brother. They believe competition, pride & profiting from ones labor, are evil things to be banished. Stephen King observed, "The beauty of religion mania is that it has the power to explain everything... [so] logic can be happily tossed out the window. This describes socialists. They will ignore logic and "common sense." They will ignore REALITY. Because THEY are religious zealots... THEIR God... is the STATE.
So per-year spending on transportation would decline from $52 billion to $35 billion per year when it should be going up to meet our growing needs.
#2. To: go65, *Jack-Booted Thugs* (#0)
unwilling to create new sources of funding such as a tax on vehicle miles traveled (this would be achieved using GPS monitoring)
"We (government) need to do a lot less, a lot sooner" ~Ron Paul
#3. To: go65 (#0)
Republicans are unwilling to raise the gasoline tax, which pays for federal transportation spending. They are also unwilling to create new sources of funding such as a tax on vehicle miles traveled....
YOU'RE AN IDIOT.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
#4. To: hondo68 (#2)
Totalitarian thug! Totally illegal violation of 4th amendment civil rights.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
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