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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (61891)	8/10/2007 1:23:17 AM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 90947

Pres. Bush Shoots Down Gas Tax Increase By B.T. on News Ankle Biting Pundits To the surprise of exactly no one, President Bush rejected the suggestion that the gas tax be raised in response to the Minnesota bridge collapse: <<< A week after a deadly bridge collapse in Minneapolis, President Bush on Thursday dismissed raising the federal gasoline tax to repair bridges at least until Congress changes how it spends highway money. “The way it seems to have worked is that each member on that (Transportation) committee gets to set his or her own priorities first,” Bush said. “That’s not the right way to prioritize the people’s money. Before we raise taxes, which could affect economic growth, I would strongly urge the Congress to examine how they set priorities.” About $24 billion, or 8 percent of the last $286 billion highway bill, was devoted to highway and bridge projects singled out by lawmakers. The balance is distributed through grants to states, which decide how it will be spent. Federal money accounts for about 45 percent of all infrastructure spending. The Democratic chairman of the House Transportation Committee proposed a 5-cent increase in the 18.3 cents-a-gallon federal gasoline tax to establish a new trust fund for repairing or replacing structurally deficient highway bridges. More than 70,000 of the nation’s bridges are rated structurally deficient, including the bridge that collapsed over the Mississippi River last Wednesday. The American Society of Civil Engineers says repairing them all would require spending at least $9.4 billion a year for 20 years. Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., says his tax-increase proposal would raise about $25 billion over three years. >>> While there will be those that consider President Bush’s rejection of yet another tax increase suggestion as ‘knee-jerk’, how about the democrats having the gall to suggest, in these days of high gas prices, adding to that burden. As though just raising the tax automatically fixes every deficient bridge in America. Here’s a thought: why not have someone in Congress raise the idea of not allowing the John Murtha’s and Ted Stevens’ of the World to pump every spending bill with the kind of wasteful pork that’s taking millions and billions of dollars away from important things like…oh, I dunno, fixing our infrastructure??? Maybe that same person could also suggest that there be some accountability from top to bottom to ensure the money that’s being spent actually is put to good use, keeping the next I-35W bridge tragedy from happening. But no, instead we get another genius “let’s raise taxes!” suggestion from Congress. Boy, that sort of intelligent, well-thought out action makes me feel safer already. Nah, just forget that. Let’s build another “Bridge to Nowhere”. Bet that one won’t collapse anklebitingpundits.com news.yahoo.com