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It's a great idea; helps offset the cost of rebuilding Iraq and raod maintenance. If you want to use the roads, pay for it as you go. Of course, all the welfare bunnies will whine and cry about losing their freebies, but who cares, most of them don't vote anyway.

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Hey Doc? In case you did not know this, as most drivers here already do, we DO pay as we go for the highways! In fact, we pay more than enough for the upkeep and rebuilding of the highways. However, as I have pointed out many times, the money is not being spent on the roads but instead pork projects for favored representatives to bring back to their districts.
I happen to be very vocal on this subject with my reps, however, the elected officials do not hear. What they do see is someone threatening a source of pork money that could be in danger of being used for what it was intended for instead of what they want to spend OUR money on.
I have made this very clear that I want the transportation money to be spent on roads instead of things like new bridges that go nowhere, from nowhere that even the residents do not want. For pedestrian walkways that serve no other purpose than to allow tourists to view the city skyline. Many other such projects are in the bill which totals almost $300 billion dollars. The last update I have seen shows only $6.2 billion for the roads. The rest is all pork.
Let's not forget the $4,000.00 raise they have already given themselves out of this bill, and this before they have even passed it!
If our elected representatives spent the money on the highways instead on pork projects there would be no reason for the tollways or even any increase in fuel taxes or road use taxes, something many states are now considering to make up for the severe shortfall in federal reimbursements in the transportation bill.

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No, drivers claim they pay for all of it; they actually only pay about 40% or so. Federal block grants are being cut, and the states are raising taxes to make up for it.
Got to pay for free medical, free electricity for Iraqis, funny they can't find any for U.S. citizens, and garaunteed profits for Haliburton, ' Homeland Security'(snicker) needs money to track all those damn Nuns flying around stalking Bush, and they are going to use toll roads to make up the shortfall. It was coming anyway, but the latest spending spree by the Republicans has just accelerated the whole thing. The cost overruns on all the new weapons systems scams alone will require doubling Federal revenue the next 10 years.
Taxes are really going to skyrocket after the elections, no matter who wins.

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Correct you are, sir. It seems as though the "highway trust fund" has turned into the same thing as the old Social Security Trust Fund - an accounting gimmick.
Around here, they taxed us for roads (gasoline taxes, excise taxes, etc., etc.) and bridges. Then they put the cash into the 'general fund' and spent it on everything from Michael Jackson's nose to wine tasting classes. When new roads needed built or existing ones needed repairs, the politicians said we didn't have enough money and ended up putting toll roads all over the place.
Yes, and they are dubbed "temporary tolls" -- with the expectation that the roads will become free when the bonds are paid off. Um, yeah....right. A 'temporary toll' is like a temporary government program -- and never seems to go away. Remember how long the toll booths were on I-95 through Richmond - even long after the road was paid for? Sure you do.
No matter what they tell you, a toll is just another tax - plain and simple. The only road in this state that has a legitimate reason to have a toll on it is probably the Dulles Greenway, as it is owned and maintained by a private company.

Flying Dutchman; expects more toll roads in the future since we now have SmarTag, EZPass and other electronic collection methods

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Doc? Not one of the things you mentioned are in the bill. There are no social programs in the bill. This is nothing more than a government spending spree for pet projects, and it encompasses both parties.

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Didn't Ohio just revamp the speed limit on the Ohio Turnpike to get cars BACK ON IT?
If they turn Interstates into toll roads, the 'scenic routes' will be clogged beyond belief.
High fuel prices put a big damper on 'family vacations' and many small caring companies have gone out of business. Tourism has suffered BIG TIME!
Making Interstate highways into toll roads won't solve anything.
Ramman's right! GET RID OF THE PORK!

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I'm all for tolling the interstate system.
Fuel taxes should be used for important things like paving over the old rail lines so people can roller blade,keeps them off the damn highways
CT. gets burned under the current sytem,we supply roads to through traffic and all the cars from out of state travel for free and we get $5.00 out of the cars who don't cheat on their IFTA taxes.

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A lot of states get burned, despite Ramman's misconception that cars pay their share. Toll roads are a good way to tax cars, too. Let every state set their own tolls and fees, like the good old days. When the true costs of going from LA to Chicago have to be paid by dweller companies as they go, more freight will go by railroad and be hauled by local/regional drivers. Less fuel burned, less congestion, less pollution, and when using the public highways as rolling storage for that JIT crap goes away, fewer layoffs as companies fill back orders and build up inventories.

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I am so glad you have such a complete understanding of the transportation system there Doc. Maybe you should be in charge of the money!
Maybe you can explain where this money comes from as well as what it is to be used for. Do you know how the transportation bill is funded? Do you know how much money the gov actually has for this? Do you know how and why the highway department is set up? How about how much each state gets back from each dollar they pay in?
I wish you would tell me as it appears that my file of documents is wrong! Sheesh! Two years of research down the drain!
The transportation fund has become the preiminate source of pork money for elected officials. They do not spend the money for its intended purpose. This department should be eliminated and handed back to the states. Then the states would have no excuse for not having the money to build, fix and maintain our highways. Despite what you say there is more than enough money sitting in federal accounts to do this. The transportation bill is funded through monies already collected. There is almost $850 billion sitting in an account to fund this department. caring has funded most of it.
BTW, if you read the bill you will see that there is an actual cut in it. For the first time the railroads are being cut as federal subsidies are being reduced. Other than cutting road funds, this is the only area that is seeing a reduction in funds.
We are being told that we will provide more funds for more pork so the feds can have more money for their own pet projects while the intended use of the monies is being cut. Yet, you continue to defend the waste of our money while decrying government waste! Yes, the gov spends way too much of our money. This is one area where the waste is obvious.
As much as I have criticised the Medicare Bill, there is some good in it. It is getting harder and harder to find any real good in the Transportation Bill. The Transportation Bill should be funding roads, not raises for Congressmen!

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if you knew so much about it, you would know it wasn't called the Federal Interstate Highway Funding bill, it's called a transportation bill , and thus covers a whole spectrum of issues. How much pork is in it is a side issue. States collect taxes for road maintenance. I-30, for instance, is maintained by Texas state DOT, not the Feds, but I guess the Feds must handle Arizona's? If so, how did you go about getting Federal highway workers?

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Yes the bill does cover a whole range of issues, but pork IS the main issue here! The transportation bill is funded through the collection of fuel taxes and a host of other taxes. The states send their money to the Feds and the Feds send it back at pennies on the dollar with complete instructions as to how it must be spent. The states have little to no discrection as to how it is to be used.
This results in the states having money to throw away on idiotic projects while having nothing to use for important projects like repairs and building new roads. For instance, the state of Arizona was handed $17 million to decorate the highways and overpasses, but was shortchanged on the money needed to rebuild major portions of I-10 that are in dire need of repair. Sure the overpasses in Tucson and Phoenix are nice to look at, but you have to be able to get there to see them first!
My point is that we have already paid for these things yet we cannot spend the money on what is needed. Instead we get to look at nicely decorated overpasses with million dollar lanscaping. Of course it would be easier to see if we had better, smoother highways to drive on instead of spending our time dodging agrressive motorists, pot holes, loose bridge abuttents, stopping short coming around the curve because traffic must stop as traffic merges for the closed lane that will not reopen until the road is fixed when and if they get the money to fix it!
We have the money to build, repair and maintain roads but it is being tossed away for congressional pay raises and tourist sights.

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That's because Arizona's congressmen and senators wanted to use the money for that. Texas just squandered money for more Dweller spaces and internet connections at rest areas.
Care to guess whose senate and congressional districts and local contractors wanted that? It wasn't 'The Feds' forcing anybody to build that stuff, it's all local political influence on block grants and matching funds spending. Of course, to change that, you have to do away with 'states rights' scams regarding these funds, by earmarking them for specific uses, which the states rights crowd hates to do.