Higher Gasoline Price Caused the polulation to:

(a) Drive less. and (b) Start switching to more fuel efficient cars - obviously - mainly foreign born.

GREAT - but now the side effects:

(a) Labor problems at the three US auto manufacturing companies, and (b) Loss of money for the Federal Highway Trust Fund nearly depleted due to driving cutback.
The Highway Trust Fund, is paid for - almost entirely - through money generated by the federal gasoline and diesel taxes. It will be $8 billion in the (pot)hole by the end of September; the huge deficit will delay highway payments to states, and could cause a big dip in construction jobs, and will impact future highway projects.

Just this summer officials were projecting the HTF wouldn’t be depleted until at least October and that the debt would only exceed $5 billion sometime in 2009, but they seem to have underestimated the impact of high gas prices. Earlier this year, President Bush had adamantly opposed a spending bill that would provide $8 billion to prop up the highway fund, preferring instead to shift money from a federal mass-transit fund to make up the shortfall. However, faced with the enormous deficit much sooner than thought, Bush reversed course and has agreed to support now the disbursement to HTF legislation.

We complained earlier about Washington’s dexreased funding for public transportation as clearly anti-American and pro-oil, but the need to maintain highways and bridges is obvious - the need to expand the road system is not so obvious. Public transportation would do more good to America then building new roads. But will it be possible to come up with common sense results at a time of elections and demands from organized labor?