In a closed-door meeting, President
Trump repeatedly
asked congressmen to raise the gas tax. President Trump is so eager to
raise taxes that he even volunteered to take the blame for it:
President Trump tried Wednesday to persuade his fellow Republicans
to raise the gas tax. In a closed-door meeting on infrastructure
with members of both parties, Trump pitched the idea of a 25-cent increase in
the gas tax, which hasn't been raised since 1993.
"To my surprise, President Trump, today in our meeting,
offered his support for raising the gas and diesel tax by 25 cents a gallon and
dedicating that money to improve our roads, highways[,] and bridges," said
Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), who attended the meeting. Carper
supports the increase and said "Trump came back to the idea of a 25-cent
increase several times throughout the meeting." The president
"even offered to help provide the leadership necessary so that we can do
something that has proven difficult in the past," Carper said.
In case you think this is "fake news," here is some
degree of confirmation from a Republican:
Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), chairman of a key Senate
committee that is working on infrastructure, attended the meeting with Trump
and reiterated that a gas-tax increase remains a nonstarter.
As well as a non-committal
response from the White House, which refuses to deny that it happened:
A White House official refused to confirm the president's
comments in Wednesday's meeting. But the official noted that Trump
has previously said everything is on the table[.]
This is not
the first time the president has reportedly tried to raise the gas
tax:
During a White House meeting with House Transportation
Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) several weeks ago, Trump mused about
a gas tax increase to 50 cents per gallon, almost triple the current
level, according to a person briefed on the exchange who requested anonymity to
discuss White House deliberations.
The federal gas tax is currently 18.4 cents per
gallon. Trump's 25-cent increase would more than double it; his
initial proposal to increase it by 50 cents would more than triple it.
States also have their own gas taxes. California's
is 38 cents per gallon, New York is 43 cents per gallon, and Pennsylvania is 58
cents per gallon, just to give a few examples. With Trump's 25-cent
increase to the 18-cent federal tax, people could be paying close to a dollar a
gallon in gas taxes when you combine state and federal.
That raises the inevitable
question: if gas taxes are already so high, where are they
going? The states alone should have billions of dollars to spend on
highways and roads. When you combine that with the money from the
federal gas taxes, there should be plenty for a wide variety of projects.
The answer is what you'd
expect: a lot of gas tax revenues are diverted to other schemes, notably
subsidizing mass transit, which have nothing to do with roads and highways.
Rather than
calling on states to use their existing gas taxes for their intended purpose,
Trump's apparent response is to call for gas taxes to be even
higher. But even Trump seems to have the self-awareness to be
ashamed to call for a tax hike in public, instead peddling it in closed
meetings with fellow members of the "swamp."
Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.
