(*SHRUG*)
Highway Trust Fund: Questions and Answers
Background: In 1956, the federal highway program was
created to build a coast-to-coast 42,000-mile network of interstate highways to
connect all major cities in the country. To pay for this program the government
instituted a “user fee” in the form of a federal gas tax. Once the network was
completed in the mid-1980s, the highways and the fuel tax were to be handed
over to the states to manage.
* WERE TO BE... (NEVER WERE!)
Congress grew accustomed to the influx of revenue and the
spending it enabled.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
The program has since been periodically reauthorized
through highway bills, expanding on each occasion, and today, the fuel taxes
motorists, truckers, and bus drivers pay are spent on a variety of measures
well beyond the scope of roads and bridges, very few of which address the
actual problems facing motorists.
* AGAIN... FOLKS... AS THESE BA$TARDS ARE DESTROYING OUR
COUNTRY RIGHT IN FRONT OF US... HOW DO WE CONTINUE TO BELIEVE VIOLENCE ISN'T
THE ANSWER? (BECAUSE CERTAINLY... NON-VIOLENT SOLUTIONS SO FAR HAVEN'T BEEN
WORKING!)
Status: The Highway Trust Fund has been depleted and
lawmakers are now seeking $10 billion to bail it out to continue transportation
spending at current unsustainable levels.
* AMERICA IS BROKE. SO... WE'RE TALKING SIMPLY PRINTING
UP ANOTHER $10... JUST ADDING IT TO THE DEBT... THAT KEEPS GROWING AND
GROWING...
What is the Highway Trust Fund (HTF)?
The Highway Trust Fund is a federal transportation fund
filled with revenue collected from
federal fuel taxes — 18.4 cents per gallon of gasoline and 24.4 cents per
gallon of diesel fuel — and related fees. Congress draws from the HTF to fund a
multitude of spending measures, from highways and bridges to a series of local
“livability” programs to mass transit such as buses and subways.
* "LIVABILITY PROGRAMS..." (*SIGH*)
Why is another highway bill coming up right now?
At the end of fiscal year 2014, the current federal
highway bill will expire. In the meantime, however, spending out of the HTF is
so disproportionate to what drivers contribute in fuel taxes that Congress is
faced with having to ratchet back spending...
* I KNOW! WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THOSE "STIMULUS
DOLLARS" GOING TOWARDS "SHOVEL READY PROJECTS?"
(*SMIRK*)
...or bail out the fund at taxpayer expense. Congress is
considering a $10 billion bailout that will refill the HTF temporarily and
extend all transportation programs into 2015.
* $10 BILLION; TO KICK THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD FOR ONE
LOUSY YEAR!
Why is the HTF out of money?
The current law governing the federal highway and transit
programs, set in effect by the last highway bill, is called MAP-21: Moving
Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century. MAP-21 authorizes annual spending well
above the revenue the HTF will collect...
* FOLKS... HOW CAN YOU READ THAT AND NOT WANT TO LINE UP
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AGAINST A WALL AND EXECUTE THEM...?!?!
* OH... AND DON'T FORGET THE PRESIDENTS WHO SIGNED THE
BILLS INTO LAW!
...and funds a host of parochial projects that have no
business being handled at the federal level.
* NOTHING ELSE HAS WORKED; I TRULY DO BELIEVE THAT IF WE
KILLED A FEW OF THE BASTARDS AND PUBLICIZED WHY THEY WERE KILLED... WE COULD
EFFECT POLICY FOR THE BETTER.
One example of a trust fund spending diversion is mass
transit. Transit use, which is mainly concentrated in just six cities (the
municipalities of Washington, D.C., New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia,
and San Francisco), received 17% of total federal user fees in 2010, even
though its share of the nation’s surface travel amounted to roughly 1% and
transit users pay nothing into the HTF.
* AND "WE THE PEOPLE" SIT HERE LIKE IDIOTS ALLOWING
THIS THEFT!
Other diversions included programs such as nature trails
and landscaping, environmental study and mitigation efforts, community
preservation, ferry boats, and bicycle paths.
* WHICH SHOULD BE FINANCED VIA GENERAL REVENUE OR THEIR
OWN REVENUE STREAMS - OR BOTH!
The lack of spending prioritization, coupled with
egregious federal intervention into local community projects, has drained the
HTF to the point of insolvency.
(Past transfers from the General Fund of the Treasury
have totaled over $50 billion since 2008.)
What are the current proposals to refill the HTF? Will
they work?
Senators Bob Corker (R–TN) and Chris Murphy (D–CT) have
proposed hiking federal gas taxes by 12 cents per gallon. This would raise the
gas tax to 30.4 cents per gallon of gasoline and 36.4 cents per gallon on
diesel (on top of state fuel taxes).
* TWO DOUCHE BAGS! HOW'S THIS SOLVE THE PROBLEM? THE
PROBLEM IS SPENDING... STEALING HIGHWAY MONIES AND SPENDING THEM ELSEWHERE!
In the House, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp
has unveiled a $10.9 billion plan to extend transportation funding through May,
2015 that would refill the HTF through...
* THROUGH FRAUD, DECEPTION, AND GIMMICKS. (THEY'RE
OUTLINED WITHIN THE ARTICLE. USE THE LINK IF YOU'RE INTERESTED.) AND THIS CAMP
IS THE FU#KING REPUBLICAN...!!!
* BACK TO THE "BIPARTISAN" GAS TAX PROPOSALS...
Neither of these proposals would make any real reforms to
the way tax dollars are allocated under the current federal highway program.
The Corker-Murphy gas tax hike would perpetuate a broken
system at greater expense to motorists.
The Camp proposal would achieve the same effect to the
detriment of taxpayers in general, employing routine Congressional budget
gimmicks to offset irresponsible spending measures.
Finding more money for bureaucrats to waste on our behalf
is not a solution.
* AMEN... (AND PASS THE AMMUNITION!)
What happens if the HTF runs out of money? Won’t the U.S.
face a transportation crisis?
Gas tax revenues will still flow into the HTF and be paid
out for transportation projects. The U.S. Department of Transportation would
simply have to slow down payments to the states.
* WHY NOT GO BACK TO THE ORIGINAL INTENT... GIVE THE
HIGHWAYS OVER TO THE STATES... AND LET THEM KEEP THE GAS TAXES FOR THEMSELVES!
Lawmakers are fond of sounding the alarm bells about what
will happen to the national transportation infrastructure if states have to
face a reduction in federal funding. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx
has said states will see on average a 28% cut in funding from the HTF. This
figure is shockingly misleading, however, as the overwhelming majority of
highway funding comes from state and local governments, not the federal
government. The 28% figure is missing context. The “crisis” reduction Obama and
many Congressmen are threatening about amounts to a 7% cut in overall transportation
spending. This will not devastate the country’s surface transportation, and
states will reserve autonomy to prioritize which projects are essential and
which have been forced on them by the federal government.
* SOUNDS GOOD!
If Congress does not act, will the federal interstate
shut down?
No. The federal interstate will be open for travel, and
construction will largely continue although plans for some additional projects
may be scaled back.
President Obama says reauthorization is simple: “We’re
just building roads and bridges like we’ve been doing for the last, I don’t
know, 50, 100 years.” What is the problem with Washington helping states with
transportation decisions?
Heritage Foundation Policy Analyst Emily Goff hits the
nail on the head with her answer: "Spending priorities are determined more
by politicians appeasing special interests than local needs or consumer
choices. And the federal regulatory burden delays projects and smothers state
and private-sector innovation."
* ONE... MORE... TIME...
When car and truck drivers pay the 18.4 cents per gallon
federal gas tax (24.4 cents per gallon for diesel) at the pump, they expect
better roads and less traffic congestion in return. Instead, Washington diverts
more than 25% of that money to subways, streetcars, buses, bicycle and nature
paths, and landscaping, at the expense of road and bridge projects.
This cycle of DC-centric policy choices is bad for the
country’s infrastructure and abusive to the U.S. taxpayer.
* NO $HIT!
Is there any opportunity for real reform?
Yes. To take away the need for periodic highway bills
completely, Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) have introduced a
new way forward in the Transportation Empowerment Act (H.R. 3486/S. 1702). This
bill would return the highway program to local control, empower local and state
governments to carry out projects that best serve their interests, and enhance
the efficiency of how money is spent on the nation’s transportation.
The federal fuel tax would be reduced from 18.4 cents per
gallon of gasoline to 3.7 cents, and from 24.4 cents per gallon of diesel to 5
cents, over a five-year period — limiting the user fee to fund only appropriate
federal activities and forcing an end to governmental waste and ineptitude.
* FOLKS... DON'T FORGET... STATES HAVE THEIR OWN GAS
TAXES!
States and localities would be free to set whatever
transportation policies they deem necessary and pay for projects in a way that
works best for them without the costly and cumbersome hurdles imposed by the
federal government.
* PRAISE J*E*S*U*S...!!!
Call to Action: Sentinels should encourage their members
of Congress to resist the business-as-usual bailout of the Highway Trust Fund.
This system has been broken for far too long and the nation’s motorists have
suffered as a result. Conservatives should insist that the HTF live within its
means in the near-term and that Congress pass the Transportation Empowerment
Act to introduce real reforms to future transportation policy.
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