How Congress can create jobs, reduce uncertainty, and repair roads in one fell swoop

It's called the Highway Trust Fund, and it's running out of money

Highway Trust Fund
(Image credit: (Mark Wilson/Getty Images))

As our political class works itself into a froth over a 10th-tier issue, yet another critically neglected problem is reaching full boil. This time it's the Highway Trust Fund, the source of much of our nation's funding for maintaining roads and bridges. The fund gets its money from the gas tax, but the tax hasn't been raised since 1993, and revenue has dried up due to inflation and the proliferation of fuel-efficient vehicles.

Congress shows no sign of doing anything about this, and the money is going to start running short in August. This is not just about fixing infrastructure — one of the major reasons for finding a permanent solution to the fund's finances is the prospect of economic uncertainty, a longstanding conservative bugaboo. If we want to reduce some major economic uncertainty at a stroke, as well as provide some badly needed jobs and infrastructure repair, this is one quick and easy way to do it.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.