WIRED is one of the best magazines these days — interesting, comprehensive articles about technical subjects. There is nothing like it. But they sure blew it this time.
An article in the May edition makes two main points: A gas tax holiday won’t lower gas prices much (true), and the gas tax supports road maintenance (false).
Here are some excerpts and comments:
Why a Federal Gas Tax Holiday Is a Terrible Idea, By Molly Taft, May 15, 2026
Reducing the fee will have only a marginal impact on prices while depriving the government of revenue to maintain roads.
Immediately, the misunderstanding rears its head.
The finances of the U.S. federal government are not like state and local government finances, or business finances, or your personal finances.
The federal government uniquely is Monetarily Sovereign. It has the infinite ability to create dollars at the touch of a computer key.
It is impossible to “deprive the government of revenue.”
As gas prices stay stubbornly high across the country, President Donald Trump mused this week about suspending the fuel tax US consumers pay.
The idea is also picking up steam in Congress, with Democratic and Republican lawmakers pushing for a gas tax holiday.
But experts tell WIRED that it’s unlikely that any rollback—even temporary—of the fee will save consumers much as the unofficial start to summer travel season nears.
“It’s unlikely that oil prices, gasoline prices, diesel prices are going to fall back to where they were in February any time in the next couple months,” says Clark Williams-Derry, an analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.
The average price of gasoline across the country was $4.53 per gallon as of Thursday, up from $4.12 a month ago, and $3.18 last year, according to AAA. That includes the federal gas tax, which is a little over 18 cents a gallon.
Trump can’t suspend the gas tax on his own—it would take an act of Congress. (Taylor Rogers, a White House spokesperson, noted the 18-cent savings in WIRED’s request for comment, and added that this move “would be a temporary measure.”)
The tax, which was created in 1932, has never been suspended. But politicians from both sides of the aisle have put forward a variety of bills this year that would temporarily lift the federal tax.
The date is important. Back in 1932, the federal government was less Monetarily Sovereign because it was hampered by a gold standard. It restricted its own money-creation ability by requiring itself to store gold, the value of which supposedly supported the value of the dollar.
It was all a self-crippling charade, of course, because the only thing that ever has supported the value of the dollar is the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.
President Nixon demonstrated the folly of gold and silver standards by simply ending them in 1971. At the stroke of a pen, the fictional “backing” for the dollar disappeared, and only the real backing remained.
Even if the tax is suspended for the summer, drivers wouldn’t necessarily see much in the way of savings. Prices at the pump are decided by a number of different factors, from refining costs to the costs to operate gas stations.
And inflation driven by high fuel prices and a shortage in commodities that rely on oil as a key input, like fertilizer, around the world is also making life more expensive for Americans. In April, the consumer price index—used to measure inflation—was up 3.8 percent year over year.
With the costs of everything from food and rent to airfare ticking up, an 18-cent savings doesn’t add up to much over the long run.
“When you take away the retail gas tax, it’s not going to have a dramatic effect [for consumers],” says Tyson Slocum, the director of the energy program at the progressive think tank Public Citizen. “But what would be dramatic is the loss in federal revenues.”
Wrong. Congress could supply all the needed revenues just by voting. That is the same way Congress provides revenues to the military branches, the White House, the Supreme Court and to Congress itself, as well as all other federal projects.
The federal gas tax funds the Highway Trust Fund, which was formed to support highway maintenance and mass transit projects.
Wrong. The tax funds nothing. It’s not even a trust fund (See: The Phony Trust Fund Controversy) It’s just a line item in a federal balance sheet — which Congress can add to or reduce at whim.
That fund was already facing severe insolvency issues even before proposals to lift the federal gas tax.
No federal program can become insolvent unless Congress and the President want it to.
Williams-Derry points out that many of the roads in the US are “literally crumbling:” Nearly 40 percent of the country’s highways and roadways are in need of repair, a 2025 survey found. The already low taxes are a big driver of poor infrastructure, he says.
No, Congress’s and the President’s unwillingness to allocate sufficient funds is the problem.
Cutting off revenue, even temporarily, would only exacerbate the problem.
Congress and the President created the problem, and they also can fix it. The tax is just an excuse to do nothing, much like how the FICA tax is used as an excuse to cut Social Security and Medicare.
There’s also a possibility that a temporary break could be extended indefinitely, given the political risks of reinstating it, particularly as midterms near.
“The loss of federal revenues available to ensure that our transportation infrastructure remains sound, it’s just not a good deal for consumers,” Slocum says.
The loss of federal revenues is entirely in the hands of Congress and the President. No tax is necessary or even helpful.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
Twitter: @rodgermitchell
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A Government’s Sole Purpose is to Improve and Protect The People’s Lives.
MONETARY SOVEREIGNTY
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 