Road Warrior - Mad Jim Oberstar

"I'm just here for the gasoline."

Transportation Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-MN) advocates raising the gasoline tax by five cents to create a new trust fund dedicated for repairing the nation’s infrastructure. His call for the tax seems to imply that doing so might avert a future interstate bridge collapse like the one last week in his home state.

Beneath the Congressman’s stab at media face time, it’s important to understand how Congressional funding works before taking Oberstar’s suggestion too seriously.

Oberstar’s committee authorizes transportation spending projects. It doesn’t actually fund them, known in DC-speak as appropriation. The reason for what seems like a contradiction is because when actual funding takes place, it is the Committee on Appropriations that makes each and every decision. This committee is all-powerful (so much so that members may only serve on this one panel). Further, its members are not bound by the Transportation Committee's recommendations or priorities.

Why should you care? Because although Mr. Oberstar may advocate increasing the gasoline tax, he doesn’t serve on a committee with power to collect or spend revenue. (He doesn’t even serve on the committee that can increase the tax – that’s the Ways and Means Committee). Oberstar is doing what every authorizer in Congress does, making broad policy statements without having to take responsibility for actually implementing the policy.

Sort of an institutional version of “never having to put your money where your mouth is.”

One twist to this story: There is actually a disincentive for Congress to spend revenue generated by the gasoline tax. The so-called “trust funds” (another of which Oberstar is advocating should be created for his increase) are just accounting gimmicks used to offset other types of federal spending.

In other words, money comes in and is spent on a regular basis. The trust fund revenues don’t represent money saved or held-back by the government, only a positive balance in the records. When you hear that such and such trust fund has X billion in it don’t be fooled. It’s not like the money is sitting in Ft. Knox waiting to spent. It’s just an I.O.U. from Congress to itself with no power of enforcement.

End result, increase the gas tax and there is no guarantee that the money collected will even be spent, let alone spent on public infrastructure.

Mr. Oberstar should be less disingenuous and more focused on creating policy for which he will be actually responsible.