Thread: Trump says he’d consider increasing the gas tax

Trump says he’d consider increasing the gas tax

By Damian Paletta May 1 at 1:32 PM

Spicer: Trump considering request to raise gasoline tax

President Trump on Monday said he was open to raising the federal tax on gasoline and using the new revenue for his infrastructure package, a potentially major policy change as his top advisers try to assemble a plan to finance $1 trillion in new projects.

Trump, in an interview with Bloomberg News, said he was open to raising the tax, though he was not committed to pursuing it.

“It’s something that I would certainly consider,” Bloomberg quoted Trump as saying. The president added that he would be inclined to back the idea “if we earmarked money toward the highways.”

Trump wants to assemble a $1 trillion infrastructure plan that would finance work on roads, bridges, airports, schools, housing and broadband access, among other things. Aides have said the package would be financed by roughly $200 billion in federal money, with the rest coming from private financing. But Trump has also suggested that he could back a plan that received only federal support.

Trump, whose policy prescriptions have largely been articulated broadly and lack many details, has expressed openness to a wide range of ideas since taking office, some of which he or his administration have later ruled out.

Trump's bizarre interview habits
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During his many television interviews, President Trump often leaves his interviewers with more questions than answers. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

And shortly after Trump's comments to Bloomberg were made public, White House press secretary Sean Spicer tamped down expectations that the White House would ultimately support increasing the gasoline tax. Spicer, speaking at his daily White House briefing, said Trump had an "open mind" about the idea but did not at this point support it. Instead, it was something he had been asked to consider by a trucking group as a way to improve highways.

Trump was considering the increase "out of respect" for that trucking group, Spicer said.

The federal tax on gasoline is 18.4-cents per gallon, and for diesel, it is 24.4 cents per gallon. The gasoline tax was last raised in 1993. States charge their own gasoline taxes on top of the federal tax.

Many Republicans oppose any sort of tax increase, but some have at times backed an increase in the gas tax. Rep. Tom Rice (R.-S.C.) in 2015 backed a measure that would have raised the gasoline tax by 10 cents per gallon to give states more certainty about future funding.

Gas tax increases are favored by some environmentalists, as it provides an incentive to buy more fuel-efficient cars. But as a tax on a purchase rather than on income, the tax also takes a bigger proportional bite out of the budget of low-income individuals, a troubling feature for those pushing for a more progressive tax code.

The Obama administration opposed raising the gas tax, though Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx at one point said they would “keep an open mind” if Congress passed one to boost finances in the highway trust fund.

Late in his presidency, Barack Obama proposed a new $10 fee on every barrel of oil, something that critics likened to an increase in the gasoline tax. The fee would have to be initially paid by oil companies, but those costs would likely be passed on to consumers. The Obama administration wanted money raised by the new fee, or tax, to go toward transportation research and infrastructure investments, but it was not approved by Congress.

The federal gasoline tax raised $20.6 billion for the highway trust fund in 2015, and the diesel tax raised an additional $8.5 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.af024e40ea66

California Legislature votes to raise gas taxes for road repairs and transit

There is so much waste and fraud in that swamp.

Raise gas tax??? He just signed away our oceans for drilling, our lands for pipelines, our precious monument lands for fracking - TAKE THE MONEY OUT OF THOSE PROFITS and take a % from all the industries YOU REMOVED REGULATIONS FROM AT OUR HEALTH'S EXPENSE. It is galling, all this profit making by the rich yet he wants us to pay.

We all know who a gas tax increase will hurt the most, and it's certainly not the wealthy.

Art Laffer, economist under President Reagan, says this would be an olive branch to democrats who crave a carbon tax. More giveaways to democrats. This is all beyond ridiculous.

NO GAS TAX...NO MORE TAXES!

WE ARE TAXED TO DEATH AND FORCED TO PAY FOR THINGS WE DO NOT WANT TO PAY FOR!

CUT ALL FOREIGN AID BEFORE ANY MORE TAXES ON THE BACKS OF HARD WORKING AMERICAN'S!

Make the polluters that have NO REGULATIONS NOW, PAY!!!!!

For trump to be the president he promised to be, let him take care of the likes of corker NOW! OTHERWISE BE DEEMED A 'LIAR' trump. - you asked for this position at the plate, now step up and take the pitch and follow thru else you are loser in God's eye and your devil money will increase now but you will rot in hell penniless. The rich get richer and their time in hell is endless!

Stop making us pay in our homeland for 3rd world refugees that are not instructed to assimilate - our constitution is still being defaced. Is there a difference between trump and obama????

If non-citizen Julian Assange has no 1st Amendment rights, neither do illegal aliens!!!! DEPORT ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS ON OUR TURF NOW!!!! ARREST THEM ON THE SPOT AS THEY CAUSE DISTURBANCES ON OUR STREETS.


http://Tennessee Senator Corker Want...rmal' ASAP

And shortly after Trump's comments to Bloomberg were made public, White House press secretary Sean Spicer tamped down expectations that the White House would ultimately support increasing the gasoline tax. Spicer, speaking at his daily White House briefing, said Trump had an "open mind" about the idea but did not at this point support it. Instead, it was something he had been asked to consider by a trucking group as a way to improve highways.

Trump was considering the increase "out of respect" for that trucking group, Spicer said.

The federal tax on gasoline is 18.4-cents per gallon, and for diesel, it is 24.4 cents per gallon. The gasoline tax was last raised in 1993. States charge their own gasoline taxes on top of the federal tax.

If the trucking industry wants to raise the gas tax in return for better roads, why would anyone seriously have a problem with that? Most trucks use diesel, they already pay more than auto drivers, so if they are willing to pay more to help make the roads better and safer, iI would support that.

Gas prices are low, now is a good time for an increase, at least for the trucking industry, it hasn't been raised in 24 years despite the huge increase in road construction and repair costs. With everything that Trump is doing on the energy development side, I expect fuel prices to go even lower in the future. I hope so anyway. Automakers are also doing all types of things to increase MPG, a new Hyundai is coming out, the IONIC, that claims to get 59 MPG, so in the future, even a small increase on auto gas would make sense. Our highways were supposed to paid for with these gas taxes. That's how Republicans set it up when we established the Interstate Highway System during the Eisenhower Administration.

Now we're funding a lot of road and highway projects through General Revenue which means it adds on to the debt. It wasn't supposed to work that way.

Originally Posted by Judy

If the trucking industry wants to raise the gas tax in return for better roads, why would anyone seriously have a problem with that? Most trucks use diesel, they already pay more than auto drivers, so if they are willing to pay more to help make the roads better and safer, iI would support that.

Gas prices are low, now is a good time for an increase, at least for the trucking industry, it hasn't been raised in 24 years despite the huge increase in road construction and repair costs. With everything that Trump is doing on the energy development side, I expect fuel prices to go even lower in the future. I hope so anyway. Automakers are also doing all types of things to increase MPG, a new Hyundai is coming out, the IONIC, that claims to get 59 MPG, so in the future, even a small increase on auto gas would make sense. Our highways were supposed to paid for with these gas taxes. That's how Republicans set it up when we established the Interstate Highway System during the Eisenhower Administration.

Now we're funding a lot of road and highway projects through General Revenue which means it adds on to the debt. It wasn't supposed to work that way.

There is never a good time to raise the federal gas tax. Prices go down and prices go up but once gas taxes are put into place, they stay put regardless of gas prices. Have you even considered the fact that it is the big rigs that actually do most of the damage to our highways?

Perhaps this will enlighten you:

The Hidden Trucking Industry Subsidy

Freight trucks cause 99% of wear-and-tear on US roads, but only pay for 35% of the maintenance. This $60B subsidy causes extra congestion and pollution, and taxpayers pay the bill.

It seems obvious that the heavier the vehicle, the more damage it does to roads over time. A 40,000 pound big rig probably does a bit more damage than your average 3500 pound consumer vehicle, right? It turns out that vehicle road damage doesn’t rise linearly with weight. Road damage rises with the fourth power of weight, and this means that a 40,000 pound truck does roughly 10,000 times more damage to roadways than the average car [1]!

In other words, one fully loaded 18-wheeler does the same damage to a road as 9600 cars. According to the American Trucking Associations (ATA), the trucking industry represents 11% of all vehicles on the road in the US, while paying 35% of all highway taxes. But if trucks represent 11% of vehicles, their heavy loads cause them to do 99% of all road damage! [2] The trucking industry paid $35 Billion in highway taxes in 2005, according to the ATA. Since most of the $100 Billion in highway taxes paid goes to maintenance (and US infrastructure maintenance is far behind), this implies that the trucking industry receives a $60 Billion annual subsidy from other drivers.

What are the negative effects of this subsidy? Since the trucking industry doesn’t pay the true cost of its road usage, it benefits relative to rail and other forms of transport. Freight rail lines are privately owned and maintained in the US, so they don’t receive a similar subsidy. As a result, more truck traffic ends up on highways than the market would dictate, leaving the taxpayers poorer, the air dirtier, and the roads more congested.

[1] Here’s some information on US pavement equations, including the statement of the fourth power law. Here’s another statement of the same, which also shows that on weaker surfaces, damage rises with the 6th power of the load.

[2] In order to calculate the damage done by trucks versus other vehicles, let’s assume that a fully loaded truck does the same damage to the roadway as 9600 cars, as mentioned above. In that case, then 11%, or 0.11 * 9600 = 1056. This is a measure of total damage done by truck traffic. Meanwhile, car traffic does 89% * 1 or 0.89 in damage. So the total damage is 1056 + 0.89 or 1056.89, of which 1056, or 99.9%, is done by trucks.

Perhaps half of all trucks are actually traveling empty. If an empty truck weighs 20,000 pounds, then it puts 4000 pounds onto each of its five axles, versus 2000 pounds on each axle for a car. The truck will do 2^4 more damage than the car, or 16 times more damage. So let’s add the totals back up: 5.5% * 9600 + 5.5% * 16 = 529. 529 / 529.89 = 99%. In fact, even if all big rigs in the US traveled empty, they would still do two-thirds of all damage to US roads!

https://truecostblog.com/2009/06/02/the-hidden-trucking-industry-subsidy/