Wellstone Memorial, Bridge Collapses, and other opportunities for knee-jerk reactions (updated & bumped)

I was hoping against hope that politics wouldn't enter into the tragedy that happened last Wednesday when the bridge collapsed on I-35W in Minneapolis.

Note to self: Don't be so naive.

In yet another knee-jerk reaction reminiscent of the Wellstone Memorial, the democrats have capitalized on the tragedy to demand a re-do of the gas-tax veto.

The problem is, in getting caught up in the emotional zeitgeist, cooler heads are not prevailing:

St. Paul, Minn. — (AP)- Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Friday he is willing to reverse his longstanding opposition to a state gas tax increase in the wake of the Minneapolis bridge collapse.

The state's gas tax has been at 20 cents per gallon since 1988. Pawlenty had vetoed bills to raise it in 2005 and earlier this year.

"Everything is on the table," Pawlenty said Friday evening on the "Almanac" news program. "I will be moving to consider and put on the table a gas tax increase."

Pawlenty said he hoped in exchange, legislators would accept some of his ideas for funding roads and bridges.

After meeting Friday with the Republican governor, Minnesota's legislative leaders began putting lawmakers on standby for a post-Labor Day special session. Pawlenty said in an interview earlier Friday that he would likely summon lawmakers to St. Paul to respond to the bridge disaster.

C'mon, Governor Pawlenty. I know that the national spotlight is on you right now--and that the liberal drive-bys currently have their microscope on your actions. I also know that you have your eyes set on a cushy V.P. gig. But this is a time for leadership, not for kow-towing.

Question for Governor Pawlenty and others: Had the gas-tax increase gone through the first time, would the bridge not have collapsed?

Is the bridge collapse really a function of Minnesotans not paying enough gas taxes? Here is a table of taxes paid on a gallon of gas by state:

State	State Excise	Other State Taxes	Total State Taxes	Total Federal & State Taxes
Alabama	16	5	21	39.4
Alaska	8		8	26.4
Arizona	18	1	19	37.4
Arkansas	21.5	0.2	21.7	40.1
California	18	14	32	50.4
Colorado	22		22	40.4
Connecticut	25	4.7	29.7	48.1
Delaware	23		23	41.4
Dist. of Columbia	20		20	38.4
Florida	13.6	16	29.6	48
Georgia	7.5	4.7	12.2	30.6
Hawaii	16	19.1	35.1	53.5
Idaho	25		25	43.4
Illinois	19	11	30	48.4
Indiana	15	3.1	18.1	36.5
Iowa	20.1	1	21.1	39.5
Kansas	23	1	24	42.4
Kentucky	15	6.4	21.4	39.8
Louisiana	20		20	38.4
Maine	22	1.5	23.5	41.9
Maryland	23.5		23.5	41.9
Massachusetts	21	0.5	21.5	39.9
Michigan	19	7.2	26.2	44.6
Minnesota	20		20	38.4
Mississippi	18	0.8	18.8	37.2
Missouri	17		17	35.4
Montana	27	0.8	27.8	46.2
Nebraska	24.5	0.9	25.4	43.8
Nevada	23	10.3	33.3	51.7
New Hampshire	18	2.6	20.6	39
New Jersey	10.5	4	14.5	32.9
New Mexico	17	1	18	36.4
New York	8	22.3	30.3	48.7
North Carolina	22.1	0.3	22.4	40.8
North Dakota	21		21	39.4
Ohio	22		22	40.4
Oklahoma	16	1	17	35.4
Oregon	24		24	42.4
Pennsylvania	12	14.7	26.7	45.1
Rhode Island	27	4	31	49.4
South Carolina	16	0.8	16.8	35.2
South Dakota	22	2	24	42.4
Tennessee	20	1.4	21.4	39.8
Texas	20		20	38.4
Utah	24.5		24.5	42.9
Vermont	19	1	20	38.4
Virginia	17.5	1.4	18.9	37.3
Washington	23		23	41.4
West Virginia	20.5	4.9	25.4	43.8
Wisconsin	28.1	3	31.1	49.5
Wyoming	13	1	14	32.4
U.S. Average	17.9	5.7	23.6	42

This graph shows how much profit governments as a whole are raking in when compared with the oil companies who actually produce and/or refine the product:

So the government, without so much as lifting a finger, makes more off of "big oil" than do the very companies who produce venture capital and risk in procuring the product!

And they're still not making enough?

As you can see in the table, Minnesota ranks about average when compared with the remainder of the United States. Overall, Minnesota ranks at 30th per capita in gasoline taxes paid among all the states. So, if we were to follow the prevailing "logic", we should have seen and should be seeing at the moment of this publication a rash of bridge failures in Illinois, Massachussetts, California, and other states in which the per capita burden is less than Minnesota's.

Hey Governor Pawlenty-- instead of buying into the fearmongering and being "shamed" into approving a counter-productive tax hike, why not instead take a look at how the current revenue stream is being spent?

As our own Senator Amy "Klueless" Klobuchar stated:

US Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, suggested Bush administration spending on the Iraq war may have crimped funding for domestic projects such as road and bridge construction, and for such infrastructure projects as new levees for New Orleans.

"We've spent $500 billion in Iraq and we have bridges falling down in this country," Klobuchar told MSNBC. "I see a connection between messed-up priorities."

Of course, I'm sure that you'll never see the millions upon millions poured into such boondoggles as Minnesota's light rail Hiawatha Line, the Northstar Corridor, or the new Twins' Stadium anywhere on Ms. Klobuchar's list of "messed-up" priorities.

Even Steve Murphy has jumped on the snake-oil, fearmongering bandwagon, stating that unless a gas tax is passed,

"We're going to have to swallow the bitter pill, take the political hit and raise these revenues," Murphy said, adding that another bridge collapse "is a likelihood, and we don’t want that."

Oh really, Mr. Murphy? Another bridge collapse is a "likelihood"? Which bridge, Mr. Murphy? I mean, we'd all like to know, wouldn't we?

On second thought, I wonder if this is the bridge he's talking about:

Bridge Needs Upgrade To Support LRT


(AP) Minneapolis A draft report by a consulting firm says the deck of the Washington Avenue Bridge across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis isn't strong enough to support the weight of light-rail cars.


The engineers who studied the planned 11-mile light-rail line that would connect Minneapolis and St. Paul said the bridge deck needs to be strengthened to support several 107,000-pound light-rail cars passing over it at once.

Heh... I guess light rail is dangerous to one's health. In more ways than one.

But I digress.

Am I the only one to notice that there is a dearth of "logic," not to mention a total absence of reasoned thought, in the argument that a single bridge collapse does the need for a tax hike create?

Face it: the Minnesota DFL is riding the corpses of five (possibly up to 13) people, using this opportunity to capitalize on a tragedy as a means to steamroll a failed political agenda, at the expense of prudent, rational discourse.


This ghoulish behavior, of course, is nothing new in the repertoire of a depraved party that saw it fit to turn a Senator's funeral into a political pep rally; having proven long ago that nothing is beneath them.

But I would have hoped that the Pawlenty administration would have had the sense and integrity to refrain from imbibing the DFL "Ghoul-Aid" this time around.