Clift: Oil Tax In Obama’s Budget Is ‘User Fee’ On Drivers, But If We Can’t Raise Money Now, When Will We?

The Daily Beast’s Eleanor Clift said that the tax on oil in President Obama’s budget would get passed on to consumers, “which would add up to something like 18 cents more a gallon” and wondered “If you can’t raise money now, with a user fee on people who drive…when can you do it, and how do we fund the infrastructure projects that we need?” on Friday’s “McLaughlin Group.”

Clift stated, “This country’s infrastructure is in sore need of improvement. The tax that funds infrastructure, the gas tax, hasn’t been raised for, I think, 16 or 18 years. This $10 a barrel fee would be phased in over five years, and then indexed for inflation. The oil companies would pass it on to the consumers, which would add up to something like 18 cents more a gallon. I was in Ohio last week. Gas was under $1.50 a gallon. If you can’t raise money now, with a user fee on people who drive, and on — who use gasoline, when can you do it, and how do we fund the infrastructure projects that we need?”

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