Once Upon a Time It Was Possible to Raise the Gas Tax

Facing a transportation bill set to expire at the end of this month, Congress did what everyone expected it to do: punted. The two-month micro-extension will get lawmakers through July, when they’ll have to do the whole thing over again. It’s reportedly the 33rd time in six years Congress has resorted to a temporary transportation patch—a series of insulting stumbles that makes it difficult for local government to arrange any sort of long-term road or rail plans.

At the core of the problem is a pervasive reluctance to raise the busted gas tax that pays for federal transportation spending on highways and some mass transit. Such a move is seen as political suicide. And so the 18.4 cents-per-gallon rate hasn’t moved since 1993, even as America’s gas taxes remain among the lowest in the world, and even as its infrastructure continues to crumble.