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Where to your propose that the money for infrastructure repair/maintenance come from?
by pyre 11y ago
Where to your propose that the money for infrastructure repair/maintenance come from?
- marcoperaza 11y agoThe government is collecting plenty of revenue already. If the need for increased infrastructure spending is pressing, there's plenty of waste and pork-barrel to cut to make room.
- intopieces 11y agoBut by cutting spending elsewhere and putting it towards roads, we're still hiding the cost of driving and subsidizing the use of cars. We've already bailed out the Highway Trust Fund for at least $65B. It's a hole we'll keep digging -- a cycle of demand inducement that begets budget shortfalls that begets general tax hikes -- unless we re-align the tax with usage. I'm asking for people who use the roads to pay their fair share; you're asking the government to collect money from everyone so the road-users can keep believing roads are self-funding. When the users are forced to confront the true cost, they'll demand better solutions. In short: we should both cut wasteful spending and re-align the gas tax with infrastructure expenditures, because the bailout from the general fund is pork itself!
- marcoperaza 11y agoOkay. Then cut taxes by an equivalent amount elsewhere. My point is that I don't think that it's appropriate for total government revenue to move upwards at this point. I think that the government can do everything it needs to do with less money than it's currently spending. Therefore, having the government confiscate more of the people's wealth is immoral.