U.S. Chamber Tells President and Congress to Raise Gas Tax: For Real

In what may appear to be a real head-turner, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is urging President Trump and Congress to raise the federal gas tax.

The rationale from the nation’s largest business lobby is that a 25 cent per gallon increase would help pay for infrastructure improvements to U.S. roads, bridges, airports and more.

According to Chamber President Thomas J. Donohue, he intends “to put our oar in the water” and publicly state that it would be “a tough vote” to raise the gas tax for the first time since 1993.

“I’ve been pushing this for a long, long time, but now gangs of people are pushing it,” Donohue said in an interview recently.

For those who may have forgotten, Trump did say that an infrastructure bill was a priority of his first 100 days in office. That was before changing the tax code and host of other issue took the spotlight.

Some say that in private meetings, Trump has toyed with the idea of raising the federal gas tax by as much as 50 cents per gallon.

As for the Chamber, it is estimated that the increased tax would raise more than $375 billion over a ten year period.

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