Now, it’s Democrats making that argument and the GOP that’s suggesting user fees should be used to pay for roads and transit.Įd Mortimer, the U.S. Republicans who opposed previous efforts to increase the gas tax or a move to a mileage fee argued it disproportionately affects lower income people, said Greg Regan, president of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department. “What we’re violently opposed to is this idea of ‘Let’s just do this for trucks.’ ” ![]() “We’re not opposed to VMT,” said Bill Sullivan, executive vice president for advocacy at American Trucking Associations. John Cornyn (R-Texas) suggested last month that a 25-cent tax be imposed on every mile driven by heavy trucks to raise $33 billion a year - about as much as the fuel tax. ![]() “But instead, today, we’re talking about a diversion of the tax code, talking about raising corporate rates to fund infrastructure,” he said. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) said during a May 19 House Ways and Means Committee hearing. “If you look at the last 30 years where we have passed in a bipartisan way, infrastructure bills here in Congress, they’ve always been predicated on user fees of some sorts,” Rep. Republicans have balked at the idea of raising corporate taxes to pay for roads. ![]() “They would rather increase for the $60,000-per-year person the gas tax, than for a $300 million-per-year person raise their income tax.” “This view that lowering taxes on the rich people is good for the economy … there’s no evidence that it is,” Sen. “It’s long past time the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share.”ĭemocrats have leaned into the idea of raising taxes on large corporations, including some that saw their taxes lowered during the Trump administration. “I’m working hard to find common ground with Republicans when it comes to the American Jobs Plan, but I refuse to raise taxes on Americans making under $400,000 a year to pay for it,” Biden tweeted June 8. The advantage of the VMT is that it would offset losses in the federal gas tax brought on by the growing sales of electric cars.īut the White House has since reversed course, saying it would violate Biden’s pledge not to raise middle class taxes. (Houston Cofield/Bloomberg News)Īs recently as two months ago, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the so-called vehicle-miles-traveled tax was under consideration in the Biden administration as a way for all motorists to pay for the upkeep of roads. Still, it’s unclear whether the White House would endorse such a move.īuttigieg at a news conference near the I-40 Hernando de Soto Bridge in Memphis, Tenn., June 3. 2 Senate Democrat, said June 10 he’s in favor of indexing the gas tax. He said it wouldn’t raise much money.ĭick Durbin, the No. Indexing the gasoline tax - currently 18.4 cents per gallon - to a measure of inflation has been discussed by the bipartisan group working on a compromise plan, according to Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who has taken a prominent role in those talks. “Questions need to be addressed, particularly around the details of both policy and pay-fors, among other matters,” White House Spokesman Andrew Bates said. for the Group of Seven summit, the Democrats in the bipartisan group went to the White House on June 10. ![]() That’s an amount that still is well below the $1.7 trillion Biden had proposed in his direct talks with Capito.Īlthough the president is in the U.K. The bipartisan Senate group has agreed to pitch a $1.2 trillion, eight-year infrastructure spending package to Biden, according to people familiar with the deliberations. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), but the White House has said he still is engaged with a separate, bipartisan group of senators despite some Democrats agitating for their party to go it alone. Biden pulled out of one-on-one talks with Sen. The debate about whether motorists or corporations should foot the bill is threatening to scuttle negotiations between President Joe Biden and Senate Republicans for a massive infrastructure plan.
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