BrianGarst.com

Despite the best efforts of the likes of Barney Frank, a CNN poll shows Americans aren’t yet ready to dance to the Democrats newest version of the tax and spend.

Nearly half of all Americans are worried about the collapse of a bridge somewhere in the United States, yet nearly two-thirds reject higher taxes to inspect and fix them, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corp.

In the poll, 52 percent were either “very worried” or “somewhat worried” about a bridge collapsing. Forty-seven percent were either “not too worried” or “not worried at all.” One percent had no opinion.

. . . Despite the concerns, only one-third of those polled favor increasing the tax on gas to pay for bridge inspections and repairs. The federal program to inspect and repair bridges is funded mostly by the federal tax on gasoline. Sixty-five percent of those questioned were against raising that tax.

Several members of the House Transportation Committee are calling for the tax hike in the wake of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis last week. Congressman James Oberstar, D-Minnesota, on Wednesday said he would introduce legislation for bridge repair funding and increased inspections. He says a 5-cent increase in the gas tax would pay for the proposed three-year program by generating $8.5 billion a year.

Every time government screws up because of its massive incompetence, the solution for statists is always more taxes. They argue more money is needed, but there’s little evidence that funds are lacking.

The real issue is one of incentives, not funds. Politicians get no electoral benefits for fixing bridges because nobody notices (“unless one collapses, but how often does that happen?” the thinking no doubt went). Why spend money reinforcing and repairing structures that no one is likely to ever realize need fixing in the first place, especially when that money can be spent buying votes? And so here we are, with the government’s persistent failures exposed for all to see. And the very first thing liberals do – other than try to blame global warming – is to call for a raise in taxes. More money won’t change the nature of government and thus simply cannot fix problems that are symptomatic of that nature.