BusinessWeek: Highway bill becomes House Republican headache

[Julian Englis]

Extremism for the sake of extremism in his own party is biting Boehner in the butt again:

A bill that Republican leaders were promoting as the centerpiece of their job-creation agenda has instead turned into one of their biggest headaches, thanks largely to tea party conservatives who want to get the federal government out of transportation programs and hand them over to the states.

The House and Senate are heading toward a showdown next week that could result in a cutoff of federal highway and transit aid to states just as the spring construction season starts. The government's authority to spend money from the trust fund that pays for transportation programs, as well as its power to levy the federal gasoline and diesel taxes that feed the fund expire on March 31. Democrats estimate as many as 1.8 million jobs supported by those programs are at risk.

Neither side wants a shutdown, but House Speaker John Boehner has been unable to recruit enough Republicans to pass the GOP's overhaul of federal highway programs. The biggest group of holdouts are conservatives who want highway programs to be paid for entirely by federal gas and diesel taxes even though that might mean a nearly 40 percent cut in spending, because revenue from those taxes has declined.

Boehner's fallback plan is to pass a 90-day extension of current programs in order to give the House more time to line up votes for a comprehensive bill. But Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Thursday he's "not inclined" to go along with an extension. He urged the House to instead take up a $109 billion bill the Senate passed last week by a bipartisan, 74 to 22 vote.

More at: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-03/D9TM3GG80.htm

[Canis Mala]

1. More genius suggestions from the TEAs

Fifty different sets of road laws and 50 different kinds of construction standards. Just what the "founders" intended: total chaos to keep government small...

[high density]

2. The teabaggers say that if the federal government is involved then we should let the states do it.

Then they say if it's state government we should let local government do it.

After that, if it's local government we should let a private business do it.

This libertarian nonsense is for the birds.