Highway Trust Fund Is Nearly Broke...

[timvwcom]

Highway Trust Fund Is Nearly Broke (http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/BusinessTravel/story?id=5736244&page=1)
Fund to Fix Roads and Bridges Could Be Empty by Month's End




The Department of Transportation said Friday that the fund that pays for road and bridge projects nationwide is essentially broke.


http://a.abcnews.com/images/Travel/nm_highway_080905_mn.jpg
The Highway Trust Fund is made up of gas tax money. The Department of Transportation is expecting to bring in $2.7 billion in gas tax revenues this month but anticipates needing $4.4 billion to reimburse states for their highway and road projects.

The Highway Trust Fund is made up of gas tax money. The Department of Transportation is expecting to bring in $2.7 billion in gas tax revenues this month but anticipates needing $4.4 billion to reimburse states for their highway and road projects.

With Americans driving less, revenues have plummeted for the Highway Trust Fund because the fund is made up of gas tax money.

Today the Transportation Department said that this month it is expecting to bring in $2.7 billion in gas tax revenues but anticipates needing $4.4 billion to reimburse states for their highway and road projects. The department said it will start the upcoming fiscal year that begins Oct. 1 with no money in the trust funds if patterns continue as is.

On Friday, the Transportation Department said that starting next week it will begin delaying payments to states unless Congress acts quickly. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said in a statement, "Americans cannot afford to have Congress play 'kick the can' with highway funding for another year, another month, or frankly, another week."

..."

Great... Now Bush and his "trickle down" economy have busted our highway funding system too. I bet the NeoCons are fucking tickled pink!!! :nonono2: :nonono2: :nonono2:

[Sensisnow]

You didn't anticipate this happening???

When I first saw all the reports about the lack of driving this Summer, the first thing I thought was "Great, it's helping the environment", but immediately after that I realized that the states are going to be losing millions of dollars in gas taxes.

This is exactly why we need a windfall tax in place. When the oil companies can still post quarterly profits in the billions of dollars and we can't even maintain our roads, something needs to be done.

[Jer]

This is exactly why we need a windfall tax in place.

I'm not defending the oil companies, but I run a small business and when prices go up for me they go up for my customers. I'm far from some genius businessman, but that's just reality. If I ran some oil company and the government started taxing the hell out of me, I'd just raise the price on my product. Why bother with a Big Oil middleman? Why not just raise the already ridiculous gas taxes? Oh yeah - that's right - nobody would ever elect anybody who was stupid enough to promise that.

[Core Shot]

Great... Now Bush and his "trickle down" economy have busted our highway funding system too. I bet the NeoCons are fucking tickled pink!!! :nonono2: :nonono2: :nonono2:

fack, dude, is there anything you don't blame shrub for??

What will you ever do if Obama is prez?

My guess is that bush and his oil buddies are pretty bummed that gas sales are down so much that tax revenues are down.
Less Sales=less profit for eXXXon and all the other devil companies that feed your habit.

And WTF does any of that have to do with "trickle down" economics??


you=moran
get a clue

PS - "Windfall profits tax" ?? Hah. Does that mean we have a "Windfall Loss Credit" when the oil company revenues for 2008 are below average, since gas consumption has gone down the toilet?

[splat]

This what happens when there is no longer any trust left.

[timvwcom]

fack, dude, is there anything you don't blame shrub for??

I'll have to think about his one... :cool:


My guess is that bush and his oil buddies are pretty bummed that gas sales are down so much that tax revenues are down.
Less Sales=less profit for eXXXon and all the other devil companies that feed your habit.

On this... miles driven were ALREADY dramatically lessened for our 2nd quarter 2008, STILL Exxon had the "best quarterly profit ever for a corporation" in the SAME 2nd quarter 2008.

Heres the evidence (sorry to be so anal);

April US Driving: 1.8% Decline (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/business/19gas.html)

The Transportation Department reported on Wednesday that Americans drove 1.8 percent fewer miles on public roads in April 2008 compared with the same month last year, the sixth consecutive month of driving mileage declines.

May US Driving: 3.7% Decline (http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/005395.html)

VMT on all public roads for May 2008 fell 3.7 percent as compared with May 2007 travel, the Secretary added, marking a decline of 29.8 billion miles traveled in the first five months of 2008 than the same period a year earlier. This continues a seven-month trend that amounts to 40.5 billion fewer miles traveled between November 2007 and May 2008 than the same period a year before, she said.

June US Driving: 4.7% Decline (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/uptospeed/2008/08/driving-less-in.html)

As gasoline prices were hitting record levels in June, Americans were hitting the brakes. The Federal Highway Administration said today that U.S. motorists drove 12.2 billion fewer miles in June than in the same month a year earlier, a drop of 4.7%. It was the eighth consecutive monthly drop and the biggest June decline ever, the agency said.

Exxon 2nd Quarter 2008 Profit: 14% Increase (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/01/business/01oil.html)

Exxon Mobil reported the best quarterly profit ever for a corporation on Thursday, beating its own record, but investors sold off shares as oil and natural gas prices resumed their recent decline.

Record earnings for Exxon, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, have become routine as the surge of oil prices in recent years has filled its coffers. The company’s income for the second quarter rose 14 percent, to $11.68 billion, compared to the same period a year ago. That beat the previous record of $11.66 billion set by Exxon in the last three months of 2007.


And WTF does any of that have to do with "trickle down" economics??
For the record; I also referenced Bush's "NeoCon" buddies...

My label here was an attempt to refer to the gutting of the middle class of this country thru tax, monetary and market regulation policies that reward the large corporations and extremely wealthy. IMHO major factors in the current downturn in the economy and the concurrent spike in oil prices. Perhaps I could have used a term other than "trickle down economy", though I still think it kinda fits... What term would you recommend???

You didn't comment about the "NeoCon" part... But that was a reference to the oft stated goals of these ultra conservatives. I can probably sum it up best by quoting Grover Norquist, who has said;

"Cutting the government in half in one generation is both an ambitious and reasonable goal," Norquist stated in May 2000. "If we work hard we will accomplish this and more by 2025. Then the conservative movement can set a new goal. I have a recommendation: To cut government in half again by 2050". To that end, Norquist has been noted for his widely quoted quip: "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.

One "leg" of that plan is to saddle the Government with so much debt that it can't afford it's other obligations. After nearly 8 years of Bush (6 of which were with Republican Congress and Republican/neutral Senate), they are doing pretty good at that.


you=moran
get a clue

Sure... :rolleyes2

[P_McPoser]

I'll have to think about his one... :cool:



On this... miles driven were ALREADY dramatically lessened for our 2nd quarter 2008, STILL Exxon had the "best quarterly profit ever for a corporation" in the SAME 2nd quarter 2008.

Heres the evidence (sorry to be so anal);

April US Driving: 1.8% Decline (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/business/19gas.html)


May US Driving: 3.7% Decline (http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/005395.html)


June US Driving: 4.7% Decline (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/uptospeed/2008/08/driving-less-in.html)


Yes, but how does that take into consideration increased industrial fuel use in the natural resources industry itself? Remember, as oil prices increase, and metals prices increase, so do the amount of fuel consumed in these industries due to increased exploration, production, and refining rates...It's not so cut and dry. This a pretty large segment of consumers.

[timvwcom]

Yes, but how does that take into consideration increased industrial fuel use in the natural resources industry itself? Remember, as oil prices increase, and metals prices increase, so do the amount of fuel consumed in these industries due to increased exploration, production, and refining rates...It's not so cut and dry. This a pretty large segment of consumers.

Discussion was about Highway Trust Fund dollars... which is funded by GAS tax revenue. Nothing to do specifically with oil in this case, other than Core mentioning Exxon's profit as somehow linked with gas usage.

[mrw]

Timmy, Timmy, Timmy

There hasn't been a highway trust fund in years. A combined effort moved all the money into the general fund to richen the pot for both parties to piss away. GWB was still knocking back shots and dodging active service when this started to happen.

The States are equally to blame for the same reasons. Hell, here in my home city, there are 3 toll bridges which collect 3 bucks a day off everyone trying to cross. The bridge commission has just passes two increases. The first to 4bucks and the following year, 5 bucks.

Why you ask? (I knew you would) well it's because the money was spent by politicians on both sides of the river for pet projects and walking around money.

The fucking bridges are falling down and our elected officials pissed away every fucking dime that was supposed to be "held in trust" for bridge maintenance. When the bridges were first built, the tolls were only supposed to last long enough to build up a self supporting fund.

Why in your wildest delusions would you ever trust government to do anything correctly?