Experts: Let Federal Gas Tax Die 'Naturally'

One unexpected pleasure over the last few months has been the way gas prices have dropped like a rocket.

But now that gas is so cheap, some politicians are plotting to raise the federal tax on gasoline from its current 18.4 cents a gallon -- figuring drivers might not even notice.

The news is upsetting economist Stephen Moore at the Heritage Foundation.

"(House Minority Leader) Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and even some Republicans regrettably have said that "now is the ideal time to raise the gas tax."

"I think this is absolutely the worst time to raise the gas tax because consumers have finally gotten a break on their gas prices," Moore told CBN News.

And that's good news because so many households haven't seen their incomes improving much if at all in recent years.

"We've just lived through five years where Americans have seen no increase in their pay," Moore continued. "It's not been keeping up with inflation. Now we're finally getting a break with these lower gas prices. It's something American consumers and families really need -- this break -- and Congress wants to tax it away."

The Heritage economist pointed out a hike in gas taxes would deal a body blow to a recovering economy and the consumers who fuel it.

"Every penny of increase in gas tax takes over a billion dollars out of the pockets of American consumers," he explained.

The irony is Americans were never supposed to have a permanent federal gas tax. It was supposed to be around just long enough to help build the nation's interstate freeway system. That was a big priority of President Eisenhower's in the 1950s to improve the nation's security. And that freeway network was pretty much finished way back in 1969.

"It was supposed to expire and sunset when the interstate highway system was completed," said Phil Kerpen, president of American Commitment, a group that advocates cutting big government down to size. "And of course that was many decades ago and it's been extended over and over and over again."

Moore hopes the newly empowered Republicans, who now control both houses of Congress, will be too smart to hike this tax.

"If the first thing they were to do in Washington is raise the gas tax on the middle class, I think you would get a revolt among voters, saying 'What good are these people? We put them in office to cut our taxes, not to raise them,'" Moore said. He also believes the extra tax revenue would be misspent.

"If we raise the gas tax, it's going to be used for building the high-speed rail system in California that costs 70 billion dollars," Moore said. "It's going to go to things like the Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska -- all these white elephant projects that Americans know are a waste of money."

Kerpen said the GOP should let the tax die naturally in September 2016, when most of it is set to expire.

"We should finally let this be the time that it expires," he said.

Moore agreed.

"I would get rid of the federal gas tax altogether," Moore concurred. "Let the states determine what their highest transportation needs are and let the local people decide where we need the roads, where we need the highways, where we need the bridges and just get Washington out of the way."

Kerpen says states could do these road and bridge projects better and cheaper on their own.

"They could be done much more effectively and more efficiently without all the federal rules and regulations and strings that come attached with sending our money to Washington so it can be run through a huge bureaucracy and be sent back," Kerpen said.

If the federal gas tax goes away and states handle it all, motorists will probably save around 10 cents a gallon in reduced taxes.