Bipartisanship to raise taxes???!?!??!?!!!
GObama!!!!
Gas prices are plunging across the country, a product of surging U.S. energy production that has put the country in the same company as Saudi Arabia and Russia.
However, in a strange twist of fate, that same dynamic is bringing to the fore a topic once thought to be anathema, especially in a Republican-dominated Congress: higher gas taxes.
The drop in fuel prices has occurred for a record 102 consecutive days, according to the AAA, putting more than $14 billion of disposable income in consumers' pockets. However, the federal gas tax has been lodged at 18.4 cents for more than two decades, which helps fund what some estimates project could be more than $1 trillion in infrastructure spending needs in the coming years.
The idea of boosting the current rate has become Washington's latest political football, as proponents argue that consumers can absorb the hike, and that the money is needed to fund improvements to roads, bridges and tunnels. Although still in the theoretical stages, the talk was apparently serious enough for House Speaker John Boehner to flatly rule out a tax hike just this week.
So what's changed?
"Congressional leadership is hearing from local delegations, governors in particular," about the need for more federal funds to lift infrastructure, said Paul Afonso, the energy, utilities and environmental group practice leader at Brown Rudnick in Boston.
In recent days, the Republican governors of Massachusetts and Iowa have both moved to bolster infrastructure funding, and may be eyeing even more cash infusions.
"There's a critical need and pressure that congressional delegations are getting from office holders [at the state level] to have this money come back to them," said Afonso, a former Massachusetts utilities regulator. "That's where some of the pressure and advocacy is coming from."
Boehner's coolness to the idea of a higher gas tax hasn't stopped a growing number of other GOP caucus members from adding support to an idea that has long enjoyed wide Democratic backing. In the last week alone, at least three high-ranking Senate Republicans have publicly flirted with the possibility.
