J.

All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

Further, from Oliver’s article:

Peters blamed the funding shortage on the high price of gasoline, which has prompted Americans to drive less. This means less fuel has been purchased, and less gasoline taxes collected for the trust fund. Americans drove 50 billion fewer miles between November and June 2008 than during the same period a year earlier.

Compounding the problem, Peters said, is federal lawmakers’ habit of loading up highway spending bills with pet projects, or earmarks, for their home states. The current highway spending bill has more than $24 billion in earmarks, she said.

One presidential candidate has averaged $1 million in earmarks for every day they’ve been in the Senate — about three quarters of a billion dollars.

The other presidential candidate has not only not only refused to ask for a single earmark, but has denounced them for years and has vowed to fight them from the White House.

Here’s a hint: one Senator specifically requested a $1 million earmark for his wife’s employer — who had, coincidentally I’m sure, given said wife a 160% raise shortly after her husband was first elected to the Senate in 2004.

Thanks for the link to the story, Oliver. It made it quite vivid just who represents more of the same, and who just might be able to fix these problems.

I don’t think that it was the one you intended, but thanks nonetheless.

J.

Damn funny how that works.

Obama should propose a new $1.00/gal federal tax on gasoline on top of the federal & state taxes we already pay.