President Obama says he wants to decrease oil imports and stop oil subsidies, yet at the same time, he’s subsidizing oil consumption — by spurring new highway spending.
When I tell the story of the oil executive who told me that his biggest subsidy is highway spending, people sometimes tell me this is wrong — that gas taxes cover the cost of highways. But they don’t.
Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center explains, in the video below and the article here, that only about half of highway money comes from tolls and gas taxes. At the same time, much gas tax money is redirected to non-road spending.
So check the video and the article before you try to claim that roads pay for themselves.
