Next for Tea Party? Eliminating federal funding for mass transit and the federal gas tax?

[NJ5]

mrstickball said:

thranx said:
makes sense to me. If the feds want to raid the gas tax for other uses (suprise suprise the feds just doing what they want with your taxes) why not just take that money away and leave it up to states like it should of been in the first place. I hope the states start trying to get more power from the feds.

Thats generally the mantra of the Tea Party. Less federal government, and more state power.

If you are unfamiliar with mass transit in America, it is a boondoggle. I understand it works in countries such as Europe, but due to population densities, most systems incur significant losses. For example, the government has been covering Amtrack's losses for decades, costing taxpayers billions of dollars a year in what amounts to nothing more than subsidies.

States are the ones that invest in infrastructure. Each state has its own gas tax, and is directly responsible for administration of roads, and their populace.

They cover Amtrack's losses, but don't they also cover the highway system's "losses" ? I recall reading that the gas taxes don't manage to pay for all of it, so trains are not the only thing getting subsidized.

Of course one can also ask if infrastructure like highways and trains should even try to pay for themselves. Since they benefit everyone in the country by enabling commerce, business, defense etc., there's a good argument to be made that they should be paid by general taxes and not specific taxes for the ones who use it more.