GA Rep Wants To Get Rid of the Federal Gas Tax

Now there’s a freshman Congressman with a good idea to lower gas prices right away:

Georgia Congressman Tom Graves said Monday he will introduce an amendment this week to phase out the federal gas tax.

The Ranger Republican made the announcement during a community meeting at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Rome after an audience member asked how they could eliminate the U.S. Department of Education.

“How about doing away with the (federal) Department of Transportation?” Graves asked with a smile.

Georgia is one of 27 “donor states” that send in more money each year than they get back in transportation funding, he said.

Under his proposed amendment, the 18.4-cent federal excise tax would be wiped out and states would be free to levy their own gas taxes to fund transportation projects.

Of course, some states are likely to hike their own gas taxes (blue states in particular), but at the state level, it’s closer to the actual voter, and there’s always the possibility of voting with one’s feet, going to another state with lower tax costs.

Another thing that dropping this back to the state level would probably help with are diverting gas taxes to things that aren’t directly related to roads. Even a state as red as Texas does it, and of course the lefties love raising gas taxes which they can then — predictably — divert to their pet causes. That last story does point out that Senator DeMint has a proposal to force gas taxes to be used for road infrastructure, but, let’s be honest about it, a future Congress can just pass a bill that reverses that and then they’re back to raiding gas taxes for whatever they think will get them votes.

Let’s give the power back to the states, where voters can — hopefully! — keep a closer eye on what their politicians are doing with it, and where Nevada dollars go for Nevada roads instead of California roads, and Oklahoma dollars go for Oklahoma roads instead of Illinois roads.