A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President Trump is pressing Congress to pause the federal gas tax and make things a little cheaper at the pump. That could ease the political pressure on his party ahead of the midterms. There also is a trade-off - potholes. Here's NPR's Stephan Bisaha.
STEPHAN BISAHA, BYLINE: Commuters usually know what it's like, that one pothole or dip you always got to watch for. One morning in New Orleans, Patrick Marshall was not watching close enough.
PATRICK MARSHALL: And I hit it probably like 25-ish miles an hour. The entire wheel almost fell off the truck.
BISAHA: He walked about 10 blocks to his teaching job before taking the pickup in.
MARSHALL: All in all, it ran me a little over $2,500.
BISAHA: Twenty-five hundred dollars? That's a lot for repairs because of a pothole.
MARSHALL: Absolutely, yeah. And it - you know, it's a tough hit to take when it's an unexpected expense.
BISAHA: But honestly, maybe you should expect that expense. Potholes cost American drivers more than $26 billion in 2021, according to AAA. They can also be dangerous and cause car crashes. And if lawmakers do suspend the federal gas tax, that would mean less money to fix highways. Rob Bhatt is an insurance analyst at LendingTree.
ROB BHATT: Any time you take away a source of funding for highway maintenance, then you're running the risk of the roads getting worse and not better.
BISAHA: U.S. roads have gotten a bit better since 2020, according to a new LendingTree report. But about 9% of American roads are in poor condition. Pausing the federal gas tax for six months, like Trump wants, would not help with roads. Plus, it really wouldn't save drivers all that much, just 18 1/2 cents per gallon.
KENT SMETTERS: Yeah, it's not a lot.
BISAHA: Kent Smetters is the faculty director at the Penn Wharton Budget Model, which researches the cost of public policies. Really, state gas taxes cost you much more. It does vary a lot by state. Georgia is 34 cents. Alaska, 9. California is 71 cents per gallon. But on average, it adds an extra 4.50 to fill up a midsize car. A small handful of states have suspended their gas tax, like Georgia. Smetters says that's costing the state.
SMETTERS: About $361 million over just two months. And, you know, now we're talking about real money.
BISAHA: Money that is helping drivers save on filling up but might cost them down and on the road. Stephan Bisaha, NPR News.
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