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Uh no. The maintenance of roadways and infrastructure should be a state/local issue. Faceless unaccountable government drones in DC are ill equipped to take on such transcontinental tasks, nor should they be trusted to. If anyone truly believe that everything is so bad in the first place, why would you want to give the parties responsible even more money and control?
Location: Living near our Nation's Capitol since 2010
2,218 posts, read 3,453,491 times
Reputation: 6035
Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Gringo
No one will like it, but if that's what's needed to maintain our roads and bridges, then we'd better do it.
Give me a king sized break. How foolish. Inefficency in controlling spending by the government should not fall upon the taxpayers shoulders. Umm...how about not taking in all the illegal "children" who are pouring into the nation. Prioritize our spending.....dont tax us even more than we already are.
Well, that'll drive the final nail in the coffin. That will cause yet another huge increase in the price of goods and services. The average working person will never be able to get ahead.
Well, that'll drive the final nail in the coffin. That will cause yet another huge increase in the price of good and services. The average working person will never be able to get ahead.
I say bring it. I can handle it but can the poor Obama supporters. Let them suffer the consequences of their choices.
Raising the petrol tax though badly needed will not solve the infrastructure funding problem per se.
Not only are Americans driving less miles but the vehicles used are more fuel efficient which all translates into decreasing amounts collected per gallon. Then there is the fact some vehicles do not use petrol at all such as electric or natural gas. Though small in over all numbers such vehicles are predicted to grow and even if the amount remains small they still use the same infrastructure as everyone else.
What is going to be needed is some sort of mileage tax, tolls, VAT or other means of raising revenue besides purely a petrol tax.
One of the best ways to fund major projects would be to harness the power of public/private partnership via infrastructure bank. Though the idea has been tossed around for decades now don't expect it to be created anytime soon. Politicians on both sides of the aisle are loathe to give up the power and influence that comes from dolling out infrastructure funds, and thus aren't likely to ceded power in whole or part to a quasi government or worse private agency.
I agree with much of what you're saying though it is kind of a red herring to blame cars which don't use gas when they make up less than 0.1% of the cars on the road. Yes, a mileage tax is a good way to solve that problem plus it would FINALLY get the free loading rural people to start paying more of their fair share as cities pay 90% of the transport taxes but 3/4ths of the costs comes from maintaining roads in rural areas. I.E. There are a lot fewer people in those rural areas but they drive a hell of a lot more AND it means lots of more miles of roads to be maintained. This means city folks ALWAYS, and I do mean ALWAYS, pay 4 to 5 to 6 times as much in relative taxes, meaning taxes to pay for infrastructure in order to subsidizes those freeloading rural folks yet, bizarrely, those same rural people are never thankful for the subsidy and always arrogantly feel it is something they're owed even though, economically, the cities would do better to just cut the rural freeloaders loss.
I don't mind doing a bit of subsidizing for rural areas if it means we don't have 3rd world conditions in our country but I will be god damned if I will listen to yet another self righteous rant from those rural hypocrites about taxes when I pay to pave all of their roads, pay for all of their stop signs, pay for all of their post offices, all of their schools, all of their farm subsidies, and god knows what else. It's high time those worthless freeloading conservatives start paying more of their own god damned way. Especially since they're always arrogantly whining and carping about any time cities spend anything on improving their own conditions when cities pay, per capita and in absolute terms, the vast majority of all the bills for the freeloading rural conservatives.
Labor is part of the cost of construction. My goodness do you think people can work for free? Government contracts are not going to slave wages paid for by construction companies that hire illegals. The prevailing wage rates are set by the jurisdiction. If you want the contract, you will comply.
Highways are only one form of infrastrcture.
Mass transit picks up roughly the same amount of fare as driving does, depending on the agency. Hell, even Amtrak picks up almost 90% of its own tab.
Plus, people who use public transportation usually cannot afford to buy a car. If they can't afford public transportation to get to work, that is just more people on welfare!
Once again, conservative ideology just reeks of stink.
Bullcrap. 40 percent of the money collected as fuel tax does not even go to highway projects. Worse, much of that does go to subsidize fares for public transit riders. Guess what? Most people that actually drive to work aren't rich either. On top of fuel and fuel tax, drivers also pay registration, parking, depreciation and maintenance. Their costs are much higher than public transit riders; there is nothing wrong with increasing fares for mass transit such that riders pay their own way.
Once again, liberal ideology just reeks of bs.
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