[MrBill]

Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right, Here I am, stuck in the middle with you.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')eclining gasoline purchases, due to higher prices, are hurting the federal fund that pays to maintain the nation's highways, the director of the Congressional Budget Office said on Thursday.

The fund is built on an 18.4 cent tax levied on each gallon of gas. It had been forecast to run out by 2009, but the fund is now shrinking more quickly, Peter Orszag testified to a Senate panel.

"Our March baseline did suggest that it would be exhausted in 2009 and an imbalance of roughly a billion and a half dollars would occur during that time period," he said of the CBO's projections on the fund's future.

"Since March, gas prices have caused gasoline consumption to decline. So the incoming revenue will be lower than what we projected in March and the imbalance in 2009 will be more significant," Orszag added.