Hmmmm..... What would Ronald Reagan do?
Looks like it's coming down to Republican senators having to choose between their two messiahs, Ronald Reagan or Grover Norquist. President Obama included this passage in his speech today at Key Bridge in Washington, D.C.:
If you don’t want to take my word for it, take it from one of my predecessors. He said that — and I’m quoting here — “the bridges and highways we fail to repair today will have to be rebuilt tomorrow at many times the cost.” He went on to say that rebuilding our infrastructure is common sense — and an investment in tomorrow that we must make today.” That President was Ronald Reagan. Since when do we have Republicans voting against Ronald Reagan’s ideas?
Greg Sargent put on his researcher's cap and found that speech from Reagan, in which he said:
The program will not increase the Federal deficit or add to the taxes that you and I pay on April 15th.... Good tax policy decrees that wherever possible a fee for a service should be assessed against those who directly benefit from that service.
So, what we’re proposing is to add the equivalent of five cents per gallon to the existing Federal highway user fee, the gas tax. That hasn’t been increased for the last 23 years. The cost to the average motorist will be small, but the benefit to our transportation system will be immense. The program will also stimulate 170,000 jobs, not in make-work projects but in real, worthwhile work in the hard-hit construction industries, and an additional 150,000 jobs in related industries. It will improve safety on our highways and will make truck transportation more efficient and productive for years to come.
Ok, so it's not an income tax, but it's a tax increase. That thing that all good Republicans revile, on behalf of Grover Norquist.
Awkward.