Potential Tax Cut

The administration will fight it, tooth and nail, but here's an opportunity, a crisis even, and not to be wasted. It seems there's an 18.4 cent/gallon federal tax on gasoline. Big deal, I hear you say, there's a federal tax on everything. But wait! Due to a colossal oversight on someone's part, it's about to expire.

A bit of background: The tax is used to pay for transportation projects like building and maintaining the Interstate highway system, which is as they say, Splendid and Worthwhile. It also funds state and local transportation projects like local widenings and maintenance, which is also nice, but it's local work. When a state needs money for local roads, it goes to the Feds for part of the funding which makes the cost of the project seem lower as long as no one points out that it's local monies the fed is giving them back. The fed is also fond of attaching conditions to the use of the money like requiring that half of it be spent on high-speed monorails to serve underprivileged neighborhoods.

Write your congress-critter and encourage him/her/it to not support renewal of the tax. If you're worried about the interstate highway system, suggest that the Department of Education be abolished, a portion of its budget be allocated to the Dept of Transportation to cover the interstates, and the remainder be rebated to the taxpayers to help them pay for gas.

Oh yes, and as always, include a final line asking that the BATFE be abolished in its entirety.