Record-low gas prices across the U.S. have given rise to fresh talk in Washington of raising the federal gas tax for the first time in over 20 years, with leading Republicans now saying a hike must not be ruled out.
The GOP has long resisted calls from business leaders and others to boost the 18.4 cent-per-gallon tax as a way to pay for upgrades to the nation’s crumbling roads and bridges.
Yet in recent days, senior Senate Republicans have said they want to keep options open and that "nothing is off the table" when weighing the best mechanisms to pay to finance infrastructure projects.
"I just think that option is there, it's clearly one of the options," said Sen. Inhofe (R-Okla.), new chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the third-ranking Senate Republican, also said they were open to the possibility of raising the tax.
Democratic leaders in both chambers of Congress, meanwhile, declared this week that “now is the time” for an increase.
While major obstacles stand in the way — namely the House of Representatives —business groups believe there is a real chance to raise the tax in the final two years of the Obama administration.
“Comments this week from Sens. Inhofe, Hatch and Thune signal a growing recognition that the gas tax is a fair and consistent way to fund our infrastructure needs,” Association of Equipment Manufacturers spokesman Michael O’Brien said in an interview on Thursday.
Democrats have typically been more open to the idea of hiking the gas tax, but it’s the shift in Republicans' tone that is drawing more attention to the possibility.
Inhofe argues lawmakers "don't have a choice" but to consider raising the gas tax, which he says is more accurately called a "user fee" 
— a characterization the founder of the conservative Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist, has yet to sign off on.
Americans for Tax Reform said it is still opposed to the idea of increasing the gas tax, despite the recent decline in fuel prices.
“Before Congress even thinks about asking Americans to pay higher prices at the pump, it should make sure that the $33 billion the federal government collects annually from drivers is spent efficiently,” the anti-tax group said in a statement that was provided to The Hill.
The tax reform group, however, did not say whether it would consider a gas tax hike this year a violation of its anti-tax pledge, which is signed by almost every Republican in the nation who runs for federal office.
Inhofe said he has a response to those who may pushback against considering the fee as a viable option.
"I remind my conservative friends, and people who ask the question about maybe as a part of a package having to increase the user fees, that this is what we are supposed to be doing," Inhofe told The Hill in a brief interview.
"The user fee is very, very popular. The evidence of that is a lot of states are doing that on their own because 'well if the federal government won't do it we've got to do something about the roads,'" Inhofe said.Thune (R-S.D.) isn't outright for raising the tax, but stuck by comments he made during an interview with "Fox News Sunday, saying "we have to look at all options."
Thune noted that he doesn't think a proposal to increase the tax would garner enough votes in Congress, "unless it's done in the context of the broader tax reform debate."
"That is not my preference for how to fix this infrastructure issue," Thune added.
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This isn't what these republicans were elected for, as we all know. Immediately, they're trying to kill their brand once again giving them a leg down going into 2016. Playing word games isn't going to cover the fact that they have the majority in both chambers to pass as many bills as they want w/ cuts and send them up the chain and force a spectacle out of Obama vetoing them. Cut bs out of the budget if ya need to make road repairs. Better yet, slash the corporate tax rate so overseas profits can be brought home at a much lower tax and use that to repair the roads a la what Rand has been proposing.
