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This bill, which attempts to make up for the country’s stagnant gas tax by squeezing revenue from domestic oil drilling, takes the concept of sustainability (environmental, fiscal and otherwise) and strives to achieve the opposite. Not only would it eliminate bike and pedestrian funding, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has said he plans to saddle the bill with a measure permitting the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, recently quashed by the president.

This evil plan too dumb to take seriously.

When Republicans propose a tax on domestic oil depletion as the thing to keep overbuilt roadways from naturally contracting, I say call their bluff.

Speaking of the constitution, I’m getting a little sick of these corporate CEO knuckleheads who come on CNBC and complain that the US Postal Service is running at a loss, and therefore we should abolish it. There is actually little beyond all those post offices that holds the fabric of small town America together anymore. And anyway, delivering the mail is one of the few actual government services that is spelled out in the US constitution in no uncertain terms in Article One, Section 8. It doesn’t say the postal service must run at a profit, by the way. The food stamp program is not spelled out in the constitution and it doesn’t run at a profit. Neither does the war in Afghanistan (if you don’t count the drug money). Congress runs at a profit, but not in any way that the constitution provides for. Before long, a lot of people are going to want to abolish it.