Another fiscal pothole

[Deleted]

WASHINGTON -- Cars are getting more efficient. Congress is not.

That confluence of factors has brought Washington to the brink of another fiscal crisis, this time over highway funding.

And it should be deeply frustrating to the auto industry, which has invested tens of billions of dollars in cleaner, more efficient vehicles, only to discover that Congress is too paralyzed by partisan squabbles to invest in serviceable roads for them to use.

Here's the situation: By late July, if revenue and spending remain on their current trajectories, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Highway Trust Fund will run dangerously low on cash. That means no more federal grants for roads and bridges in need of repair.

Predictably, the argument is about taxes and spending. Every one of these man-made crises gets a snappy name: debt ceiling, fiscal cliff, government shutdown. Let's call this one the fiscal pothole.

President Obama clearly sees it as the next crisis. "States might have to put some of their projects on hold," he warned the nation in his weekly video address on May 18. "In fact, some already are, because they're worried Congress won't clear up its own gridlock."

It comes as no surprise that the highway fund is almost empty. For years, spending has outstripped the roughly $40 billion that the federal government collects annually from an 18.4-cents-a-gallon tax on gasoline and a 24.4-cents-a-gallon tax on diesel fuel.

Yes, highway projects have gotten more expensive. But the main reason for the gap is on the revenue side: Cars and trucks are much more efficient than they were in 1993, the last time the fuel taxes were raised.

Light-duty vehicles used 123.9 billion gallons of fuel in 2011, an 11 percent drop from 2004, according to University of Michigan researcher Michael Sivak. And that was before the Obama administration's strict new fuel economy standards even began.

Current laws offer no solution to the funding problem. For the nation to avoid the fiscal pothole, Congress needs to act. But once again, Congress is proving itself incapable of anything but brinkmanship.

This month the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved a six-year bill that would maintain spending at current levels, plus inflation, but without any suggestion of where that money would come from.

That task was left to the Senate Finance Committee.

www.autonews.com/article/20140525/OEM11/305269980/brace-yourself-for-the-fiscal-pothole

this is one of the next major issues we have to address

our roads, and bridges are decaying faster than we are rebuilding them

i know in the DC area, a lot of roads are now going the toll route

i expect some localities and states to use the same ideas

[wyouser]

golly gee....another unintended consequence?  gas prices are up....consumer tightens belt and drives less.  Gov't mandates higher fuel economy so fewer gallons are burned and revenue decreases.   So now we must raise taxes or invent new ones to raise more revenue which will increase cost to the consumer , who will tighten his belt further, drive less and reduce revenue. Gov't is also increasing fuel economy mandates to auto makers so cars in the near future will use less fuel decreasing revenue......well, for pete sake...we need more laws to address this crisis!!!  Damn politicians are slacking off again!

[zibazinski]

It's  like when the utilities hammer you to cut back then have to raise prices because you do just that. They didnt make as much money as they planned.

[Deleted]

May 28, 2014 11:35:29 GMT -5 wyouser said:

golly gee....another unintended consequence?  gas prices are up....consumer tightens belt and drives less.  Gov't mandates higher fuel economy so fewer gallons are burned and revenue decreases.   So now we must raise taxes or invent new ones to raise more revenue which will increase cost to the consumer , who will tighten his belt further, drive less and reduce revenue. Gov't is also increasing fuel economy mandates to auto makers so cars in the near future will use less fuel decreasing revenue......well, for pete sake...we need more laws to address this crisis!!!  Damn politicians are slacking off again!

you got it

one of these days, maybe, just maybe, they will get their heads out of their ass and actually think about things

well....maybe not.....we are talking about the idiots in office

[The Captain]

May 28, 2014 12:29:30 GMT -5 @gdgyva said:

May 28, 2014 11:35:29 GMT -5 wyouser said:

golly gee....another unintended consequence?  gas prices are up....consumer tightens belt and drives less.  Gov't mandates higher fuel economy so fewer gallons are burned and revenue decreases.   So now we must raise taxes or invent new ones to raise more revenue which will increase cost to the consumer , who will tighten his belt further, drive less and reduce revenue. Gov't is also increasing fuel economy mandates to auto makers so cars in the near future will use less fuel decreasing revenue......well, for pete sake...we need more laws to address this crisis!!!  Damn politicians are slacking off again!

you got it

one of these days, maybe, just maybe, they will get their heads out of their ass and actually think about things

well....maybe not.....we are talking about the idiots in office

...and a majority of this nation voted to put them there. What does that say about the US in general?

[Deleted]

some of us decided none of the above

just not enough of us

but i agree....we put the idiots in office

and what they do while there is all our fault

[wyouser]

May 28, 2014 13:53:45 GMT -5 @gdgyva said:

some of us decided none of the above

just not enough of us

but i agree....we put the idiots in office

and what they do while there is all our fault

I wonder the problem doesn't run a bit deeper.  Are we not almost spoon fed our choices by the "establishment" in both parties during the primaries?  But on the  other hand we seem to send these "gifted" (at what I don't know) political  sages back into office

[djAdvocate]

May 28, 2014 10:51:12 GMT -5 @gdgyva said:

WASHINGTON -- Cars are getting more efficient. Congress is not.

That confluence of factors has brought Washington to the brink of another fiscal crisis, this time over highway funding.

And it should be deeply frustrating to the auto industry, which has invested tens of billions of dollars in cleaner, more efficient vehicles, only to discover that Congress is too paralyzed by partisan squabbles to invest in serviceable roads for them to use.

Here's the situation: By late July, if revenue and spending remain on their current trajectories, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Highway Trust Fund will run dangerously low on cash. That means no more federal grants for roads and bridges in need of repair.

Predictably, the argument is about taxes and spending. Every one of these man-made crises gets a snappy name: debt ceiling, fiscal cliff, government shutdown. Let's call this one the fiscal pothole.

President Obama clearly sees it as the next crisis. "States might have to put some of their projects on hold," he warned the nation in his weekly video address on May 18. "In fact, some already are, because they're worried Congress won't clear up its own gridlock."

It comes as no surprise that the highway fund is almost empty. For years, spending has outstripped the roughly $40 billion that the federal government collects annually from an 18.4-cents-a-gallon tax on gasoline and a 24.4-cents-a-gallon tax on diesel fuel.

Yes, highway projects have gotten more expensive. But the main reason for the gap is on the revenue side: Cars and trucks are much more efficient than they were in 1993, the last time the fuel taxes were raised.

Light-duty vehicles used 123.9 billion gallons of fuel in 2011, an 11 percent drop from 2004, according to University of Michigan researcher Michael Sivak. And that was before the Obama administration's strict new fuel economy standards even began.

Current laws offer no solution to the funding problem. For the nation to avoid the fiscal pothole, Congress needs to act. But once again, Congress is proving itself incapable of anything but brinkmanship.

This month the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved a six-year bill that would maintain spending at current levels, plus inflation, but without any suggestion of where that money would come from.

That task was left to the Senate Finance Committee.

www.autonews.com/article/20140525/OEM11/305269980/brace-yourself-for-the-fiscal-pothole

this is one of the next major issues we have to address

our roads, and bridges are decaying faster than we are rebuilding them

i know in the DC area, a lot of roads are now going the toll route

i expect some localities and states to use the same ideas

another really simple problem to fix.  but nobody has the balls to do it.

[jkapp]

Just think about what they will have to do if alternative fuel cars using renewable resources ever become wide spread...that when the whole "tax you on how much you drive" crap will start, which will also have the "but the poor may have to drive a lot and the rich can find alternatives to driving" bullshit arguments.

Same shit, different setting...same old, same old in government and politics

[Deleted]

electric cars

the move to rapid transit

natural gas buses and trucks

every new technology takes a small bite out of their budget

while more and more vehicles use the roads, bridges, tunnels, etc

they will collect the money somehow

keep a close watch on your wallet people

uncle sammie gonna need a few more bucks

[wyouser]

Anybody out there want to buy a horse?

[djAdvocate]

May 29, 2014 8:50:25 GMT -5 @gdgyva said:

electric cars

the move to rapid transit

natural gas buses and trucks

every new technology takes a small bite out of their budget

while more and more vehicles use the roads, bridges, tunnels, etc

they will collect the money somehow

keep a close watch on your wallet people

uncle sammie gonna need a few more bucks

that is a given.  but tax rates have been falling for 30 years now, so that should not really be an issue. 

[b2r]

May 29, 2014 11:43:44 GMT -5 wyouser said:

Anybody out there want to buy a horse?

 
    Giddy up!

[Deleted]

May 29, 2014 11:57:56 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

May 29, 2014 8:50:25 GMT -5 @gdgyva said:

electric cars

the move to rapid transit

natural gas buses and trucks

every new technology takes a small bite out of their budget

while more and more vehicles use the roads, bridges, tunnels, etc

they will collect the money somehow

keep a close watch on your wallet people

uncle sammie gonna need a few more bucks

that is a given.  but tax rates have been falling for 30 years now, so that should not really be an issue. 

to you uncle sammie having his hand out isnt a big deal

to me it is

i dont like the government pissing away my money

we have finite resources.....and we keep wasting them on shit that dont matter

you are successful, and dont mind paying your "fair share"

our definition of fair share is where we differ.....

tax rates have dropped....and states, localities, and cities have more than made up for those drops

we pay taxes for damn near everything now....cable, gas, food

i just had to pay my county a $ 200 fee to put up a damn shed

enough is collected.....we need to trim where the money goes to

[workpublic]

I'm Taxed Enough Already

[djAdvocate]

May 29, 2014 12:22:09 GMT -5 @gdgyva said:

May 29, 2014 11:57:56 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

that is a given.  but tax rates have been falling for 30 years now, so that should not really be an issue. 

to you uncle sammie having his hand out isnt a big deal

um....the winky guy is a sarcastic remark, bro.  please lighten up, the stress is going to do you in.

but if you want a serious remark: until the deficit is gone, i am not going to take complaints about taxes very well.  until then, we are BY DEFINITION not taxed enough.

[djAdvocate]

May 29, 2014 14:10:46 GMT -5 workpublic said:

I'm Taxed Enough Already

YOU?  you are one of the 47% who Romney was talking about, dude.

but then again, so are most of the Tea Partiers. 

[The Captain]

May 29, 2014 20:08:07 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

May 29, 2014 12:22:09 GMT -5 @gdgyva said:

to you uncle sammie having his hand out isnt a big deal

um....the winky guy is a sarcastic remark, bro.  please lighten up, the stress is going to do you in.

but if you want a serious remark: until the deficit is gone, i am not going to take complaints about taxes very well.  until then, we are BY DEFINITION not taxed enough.

As someone who lives in a country, state, county, and city which consistently spend more then they take in, I would have to disagree with you definition.

We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

[workpublic]

YOU? you are one of the 47% who Romney was talking about, dude.

please, i was charged 40k in "income" on one mutual fund exchange last year.

if 47% of the country sent the feds $1700 and their state $1400(like I did) we wouldn't be in this mess. my W2 showed 24K

i live in northern westchester ny everything is taxed/feed. hell this post cost me 7.8%

you "let them eat cake" 1%ers need to get out in the world more


OT - my new job totally sucks on so many levels(the quality of service is abysmal, but what do you want from a civil service job ). I am aggressively trying to get out.