The Federal government in the United States does not require tax revenue to fund road construction. The only tax actually earmarked for this purpose is the gasoline tax, which is less than 2% of the Federal government’s appropriations for highway construction. Federal taxes are largely punitive and coercive (we want you to do this thing like have children, or live here, or not get too rich doing that thing because otherwise Lockheed lobbyists get upset).
All I had to do was google “Are roads fully funded by the gas tax” to find a contracticting source:
> Nearly as much of the cost of building and maintaining highways now comes from general taxes such as income
and sales taxes (plus additional federal debt) as comes from gasoline taxes or other “user fees” on drivers. General taxes accounted for $69 billion of highway spending in 2012.
Perhaps my use of the term “earmarked” was confusing. This refers to a congressional requirement that certain tax revenues be allocated for specific purposes. That’s the gasoline tax and very very very few taxes are written this way.
