White House Adds Its Clout Against Gas Tax Hike

Further, the White House forthrightly erased any lingering doubts on that point. The administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) phoned the office of Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colo., and offered to enlist in her running battle to stop efforts to hike the tax on America’s families.

“They called and said they would be help - that they support us,” Musgrave spokesman Guy Short told NewsMax.

This brings to a screeching halt any internal debate on the matter inside the administration.

NewsMax hears that Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta at first was willing to go along with boosting the gas tax, but was told, “Norm, we would hate to lose you to the private sector.”

Mineta does like his job, and the White House is traditionally tight-lipped about such internal disputes.

Flanked by like-minded colleagues, Musgrave on Wednesday held a “media event” and announced that two more lawmakers, Jeff Miller and Cliff Stearns, both Florida Republicans, had signed on to her letter urging House Speaker Dennis Hastert to oppose the tax hike.

The list continues to grow despite House Transportation Chairman Don Young’s partially successful efforts to persuade lawmakers to remove their names from the letter to Hastert.

In our last report, NewsMax revealed that four congressmen had withdrawn their names. The Young committee dispenses a lot of pork. That gets the attention of some members of Congress who have a need to “bring home the bacon.”

The Colorado congresswoman also picked up one more grassroots endorsement beyond the 16 organizations NewsMax has already named.

Club for Growth is now on board. This is an organization that takes names of GOP lawmakers who stray into liberal territory too often and throws its backing to conservative alternatives in the Republican primary.

Its leader Steve Moore told the news conference that there are alternatives to raising gas taxes. One idea would be to leave the gas tax revenues with the states and let them use it on transportation projects as they see fit.

He said this would be preferable to sending it to Washington only to have it recycled through the federal bureaucracy before going back to the states.

Other possibilities discussed included the Fast Act, (backed by Rep. Mark Kennedy, R-Minn., and Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo.)which would allow the private sector to collect road tolls; financing projects through bonds; and making sure that interest from the Highway Trust Fund remains with the that fund rather than going to the general fund, as has happened.

Sticking motorists with a stiffer tax burden is “the wrong way to travel.” according to Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., who participated in the news conference, “It is regressive and hurts the poorest of the poor while raising the price of nearly every good and service.”

Reporters also brought up the NewsMax story that Congresswoman Musgrave clashed with Chairman Young, R-Alaska, on the House floor during a vote on Monday.

What emerged was an explanation that as Young, the primary advocate of boosting the gas tax, raised his voice and pointed at Musgrave, the Coloradan moved closer to him and stated that she would not be intimidated.