Let's raise the gas tax

[cooltigger21 0]

Low hanging fruit:

• Washington spends $92 billion on corporate welfare (excluding TARP) versus $71 billion on homeland security.[2]
  
• Washington spends $25 billion annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties.[3]
  
• Government auditors spent the past five years examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them -- costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion annually -- fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve.[4]
  
• The Congressional Budget Office published a "Budget Options" series identifying more than $100 billion in potential spending cuts.[5]
  

My personal favorites:

• Washington will spend $2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job.[7] This is certainly the type of thing the federal gov't should be involved in...
  
• The Federal Communications Commission spent $350,000 to sponsor NASCAR driver David Gilliland.[20]YEHAW!!!!!
  
• Congress recently gave Alaska Airlines $500,000 to paint a Chinook salmon on a Boeing 737.[25]
  
• Washington spends $60,000 per hour shooting Air Force One photo-ops in front of national landmarks.[30]
  
• Homeland Security employee purchases include 63-inch plasma TVs, iPods, and $230 for a beer brewing kit.[38]
  
• The Pentagon recently spent $998,798 shipping two 19-cent washers from South Carolina to Texas and $293,451 sending an 89-cent washer from South Carolina to Florida.[11]
  

Hundreds of $billions in waste....and some here think bike paths and sidewalks are what we should be spending federal $$ on...

http://www.heritage....overnment-waste

It's not just these idiotic things. There is so much overlap. You could eliminate about half the programs and agencies and still do everything the government does now.

[homersapien 11,393]

The Swamp Rabbit Trail has been a tremendous economic boom to Greenville county. Traveler's Rest is booming with new business start-ups. This are the sort of things that attract people - and businesses - to locate here.

Republicans are totally out of touch regarding what such amenities can mean to the economy. Well, except for the local Republican mayors and County council members who supported it here.

http://greenvillerec.com/swamprabbit

Meanwhile, Greenville County is trying to pay for badly needed road repair and improvement by increasing the sales tax by 1%. Crazy way to fund road maintenance/construction, but our Republican Governor - Nikki Haley - has decided to adhere to the "no tax" party line, even though we have one of the lowest state gas tax rates in the country.

Well that is a matter for local voters to decide. It is where these battles belong, not at the federal level.

The Swamp Rabbit Trail has been a tremendous economic boom to Greenville county. Traveler's Rest is booming with new business start-ups. This are the sort of things that attract people - and businesses - to locate here.

Republicans are totally out of touch regarding what such amenities can mean to the economy. Well, except for the local Republican mayors and County council members who supported it here.

http://greenvillerec.com/swamprabbit

Meanwhile, Greenville County is trying to pay for badly needed road repair and improvement by increasing the sales tax by 1%. Crazy way to fund road maintenance/construction, but our Republican Governor - Nikki Haley - has decided to adhere to the "no tax" party line, even though we have one of the lowest state gas tax rates in the country.

Well that is a matter for local voters to decide. It is where these battles belong, not at the federal level.

Some folks, like homie, honestly believe the federal govt is better equipped than State or Local jurisdictions to make EVERY SINGLE DECISION that affects people's lives. I mean, the VA debacle certainly seems to make his argument incredibly persuasive, doesn't it? :-\

Actually, I don't disagree that decisions like parks and trails should be local. What I disagree with is a doctrinal refusal to raise gas taxes when the money is needed for infrastructure improvement at either the federal or local level.

[AFTiger 282]

If the money raised from the gas tax were used for its intended purpose, we would not be talking about raising the tax. This is probably one of the best examples of the diversion of tax receipts for pet projects. As you may recall, the nearly one trillion dollar appropriation for shovel ready work went everywhere but infrastructure, The politicians cannot be trusted with public money and have proven it time and again.

[cooltigger21 0]

The Swamp Rabbit Trail has been a tremendous economic boom to Greenville county. Traveler's Rest is booming with new business start-ups. This are the sort of things that attract people - and businesses - to locate here.

Republicans are totally out of touch regarding what such amenities can mean to the economy. Well, except for the local Republican mayors and County council members who supported it here.

http://greenvillerec.com/swamprabbit

Meanwhile, Greenville County is trying to pay for badly needed road repair and improvement by increasing the sales tax by 1%. Crazy way to fund road maintenance/construction, but our Republican Governor - Nikki Haley - has decided to adhere to the "no tax" party line, even though we have one of the lowest state gas tax rates in the country.

Well that is a matter for local voters to decide. It is where these battles belong, not at the federal level.

The Swamp Rabbit Trail has been a tremendous economic boom to Greenville county. Traveler's Rest is booming with new business start-ups. This are the sort of things that attract people - and businesses - to locate here.

Republicans are totally out of touch regarding what such amenities can mean to the economy. Well, except for the local Republican mayors and County council members who supported it here.

http://greenvillerec.com/swamprabbit

Meanwhile, Greenville County is trying to pay for badly needed road repair and improvement by increasing the sales tax by 1%. Crazy way to fund road maintenance/construction, but our Republican Governor - Nikki Haley - has decided to adhere to the "no tax" party line, even though we have one of the lowest state gas tax rates in the country.

Well that is a matter for local voters to decide. It is where these battles belong, not at the federal level.

Some folks, like homie, honestly believe the federal govt is better equipped than State or Local jurisdictions to make EVERY SINGLE DECISION that affects people's lives. I mean, the VA debacle certainly seems to make his argument incredibly persuasive, doesn't it? :-\

Actually, I don't disagree that decisions like parks and trails should be local. What I disagree with is a doctrinal refusal to raise gas taxes when the money is needed for infrastructure improvement at either the federal or local level.

If the gas tax had been used for what it was intended we wouldn't need to be raising it. It like everything else has been diverted and used for everything except what it was intended for. Federal government involvement has raised the cost of everything and causes delays. You notice that every once in a while we have an emergency where all the red tape is gotten rid of. It comes in at less cost and in much less time. Each state should handle their own roads.