You know what deserves a big, fat tax? Bottled water.

The Highway Trust Fund needs a new source of revenue. And the transport of bottled water is both wasteful and unnecessary.

Bottled water
(Image credit: (iStock))

Everyone agrees that the Highway Trust Fund, which is used to repair and maintain our roads and bridges, is in deep financial trouble. But beyond that, opinions for how to keep the fund solvent are as abundant as the roads at an L.A. interchange.

For progressives, the debate has focused on how to wring more money out of our cars without actually raising the gas tax, such as a proposal for a new tax on vehicle miles traveled. Some conservatives, meanwhile, have seized the opportunity to question why we have a federal gas tax at all.

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Jacob Anbinder

Jacob Anbinder is a policy associate at the Century Foundation, the New York-based think tank. He writes about transportation, infrastructure, and urban affairs.