The New Republic asks if our looming national debt will play a role in the coming transportation debate. The Antiplanner is counting on it.
“Ever-rising obligations outpaced gas tax collections and forced the federal government to twice infuse the highway trust fund with general fund revenues,” points out TNR. “In other words: Transportation no longer pays for itself.” Of course, those “ever-rising obligations” are entirely because Congress passed a bill in 2005 that authorized it to spend more than it was collecting in highway user fees (and 20 to 40 percent of that spending wasn’t on highways). And as for transportation no longer paying for itself, it never really did because it was too attractive as a form of pork barrel.
