 Opinion Editorials  Highway Funding A Total Embarrassment  The
band-aid fix that the U.S. House of Representatives has applied
to the dwindling federal highway trust fund is a disappointment
and an embarrassment.  The fund, largely supported by the
federal gas tax, is nearly broke, in large part because the
18.4-cent tax hasn't been raised in 21 years. The logical,
common-sense answer is to raise the gas tax as part of a long-
term transportation funding program. But no, instead the House
this past week passed a short-term, $10.8 billion patch, which
will fund transportation infrastructure projects for 10 months.
The majority of this money will come from a specious fiscal
gimmick called "pension smoothing. This allows corporations to
slow down contributions to their pension plans, which creates
more taxable revenue. But as critics from the left and right
have noted, it's not clear this actually produces any money.
First, some companies may chose to make more than the minimum
pension contribution and take the