Where does all that money go?

Not to the transportation projects that need it, reports Dr. Ronald Utt at the Heritage Foundation.

Seems like it isn't just Virginia that has the problem using transportation dollars in a way that will actually benefit motorists and ease traffic congestion. Dr. Utt reports that the federal Highway Trust Fund is being looted by Congress for a number of projects that are doing nothing to actually address pressing transportation needs.

In "Congress Undermines America's Infrastructure by Looting the Highway Trust Fund," Dr. Utt writes:

Among the many reasons these congressional tax-and-spend schemes will fail to relieve worsening traffic congestion and road deterioration is that less than two-thirds of current federal surface transportation spending is devoted to the general purpose roads that the typical motorist or truck driver (who finances the fund) use in the ordinary course of travel. The other third goes to a growing collection of costly diversions that have little to do with the mobility needs of the average motorist or to the economically essential movement of freight.