Biden: No new gas taxes

Won’t pay for infrastructure with a hit to those in need

The White House made clear Friday that President Biden was opposed to letting the federal gasoline tax rise at the rate of inflation to help pay for an infrastructure package that a bipartisan group of 21 senators is trying to craft.

The gas tax increase was part of an early package that called for $579 billion in new spending on roads, bridges, rail and public transit. It’s unclear if it will make the final cut and the White House seems intent on making sure it doesn’t.

“The President has been clear throughout these negotiations: He is adamantly opposed to raising taxes on people making less than $400,000 a year,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said. “After the extraordinarily hard times that ordinary Americans endured in 2020 — job losses, shrinking incomes, squeezed budgets — he is simply not going to allow Congress to raise taxes on those who suffered the most.”

The federal gas tax stands at 18.4 cents a gallon and has not increased since 1993. It helps pay for highways and mass transit programs around the country. Congress has traditionally relied on the user-pay principle to pay for road and bridge work, but is increasingly relying on general funds to accomplish that task. Lawmakers from both parties are wary of attack ads accusing them of supporting a hike in gas prices.

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the Democratic chairman of

President Biden ‘is simply not going to allow Congress to raise taxes on those who suffered the most.’

ANDREW BATES White House spokesman

the Senate Finance Committee, said that indexing the gas tax to inflation was a nonstarter for him.

“It’s another hit on working people,” Wyden said.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said a gas tax hike is a “Republican thing.”

“Democrats want to fund this by taxing people (earning) $400,000,” Brown said.

The White House is expecting to hear from the senators crafting the infrastructure package on Monday. It is scaled back from Biden’s proposal, but Democrats

are preparing to move other parts of Biden’s agenda in separate legislation that they could pass using a tool that requires only a simple majority for approval.

The bipartisan plan offers about $579 billion in new spending, including $110 billion on roads and highways, $66 billion on passenger and freight rail and $48 billion on public transit. And $47 billion would go toward efforts to fight climate change and there is money for electric vehicle charging stations.

AP FILE GETTING MORE EXPENSIVE: Gas price is seen at a Mobil gas station in Vernon Hills, Ill., on June 11. The national average price has gone up from $2 per gallon last year to $3 per gallon as of June 9, according to data from the American Automobile Association.

GETTY IMAGES FILE NOT GONNA DO IT: President Biden said Friday he does not want to index the gas tax to inflation to pay for his infrastruction plan, saying that would be a tax on poorer people, which he is opposed to, especially coming off the pandemic.