The Simple Truth

Did you know that 18.6 cents of every gallon of gasoline that you purchase goes to the Congressional highway fund?

Do you know how Congress spends this money? Don’t assume it goes for highways. What your Congress uses the highway fund money collected from the sale of gasoline is for Congressional earmarks. For those unfamiliar with earmarks that is the most recent buzzword for pork barrel legislation projects. If you are not familiar with pork barrel, it is the “walking about” money or “I’ll pat you on your back if you’ll support me in my re-election” money. In simple terms, it is a Congressional slush fund.

Assume the average car owner in the US buys 10 gallons of gasoline a week. Then that person is contributing $1.86 to the Congressional highway fund a week. In one year that contribution would amount to $96.72. Some might say, so what?

Assume there are approximately 200,000,000 vehicles in the US being filled with at least 10 gallons of gasoline every week. The total of this contribution to the Congressional slush fund would be $19,344,000,000 (BILLION) in a year. Now that’s a lot of money! (These numbers are low-balled because the average truck drivers spend $3,000-$4,000 per week on gasoline.)

In the last four weeks, American consumers have demonstrated economics in its simplicity. If you noticed over this weekend, gas prices at the pump took a noticeable decrease. The cause of this decrease was not the result of any Congressional action. Instead, the decrease in price was the result of several factors, but mostly the result of American drivers curtailing their demand for gas. When the demand for a product decreases, it results in an increase in supply. When supply increases, the prices go down.

How did the members of the US Congress react to the decrease in demand for gas? Did they jump for joy and thank the American consumer for heeding their warning that gas consumption was leading to global warming? NO. Not a peep about global warming was heard. Instead, the Democratic members of Congress proposed a 10% increase in federal taxes on gasoline!!! Say it ain’t so!!! Why in the world would the Democrats in Congress want to raise taxes on gasoline and raise the price of gas at the pump????

The simple truth is this: a decrease in consumption of gasoline not only drove down the price at the pump, but it decreased the money in the Congressional slush fund!!! Panic hit the fan in Congress and the Democratic leadership, which controls all legislation in Congress, was beside itself. Democrats in Congress LOVE OIL, and the last thing they want to see is the price of oil decrease. Federal gasoline taxes provide them with their precious Congressional slush fund. With the slush fund, they can use the money to influence / persuade people to vote to keep the Democrats in power. What Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi demonstrated with the proposal of a federal gasoline tax increase was the audacity of infinite colossal greed and arrogance flaunted in the face of Americans struggling with increasing prices and the cost of living.


The number of estimated vehicles comes from Bureau of Transportation