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| − | The '''National Highway System''' is the system of [[highway]]s in the [[United States]] overseen by the federal [[government]] via the [[Federal Highway Administration]].
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| − | ==History==
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| − | Up until the 1930s, the United States had effectively no major highways, because the [[automobile]] had yet to become as popular as it is today. However, with a rapidly expanding population (which would soon culminate in the twin [[Malthus]]ian busts of the [[Great Depression]] and [[World War II]]), [[President]] [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]] felt that something had to be done. He set part of the [[Civilian Conservation Corps]] to work building a system of modern roads and rails, based largely on the similar work being done by [[Adolf Hitler]] in [[Germany]].<ref>[http://www.hitler.org/artifacts/autobahn/ "Hitler's Creation of the Autobahn"]</ref>
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| − | The work in "[[New Deal]]" America and [[Nazi]] Germany proceeded in parallel. Hitler's National [[Autobahn]] Society and Roosevelt's Bureau of Public Roads Administration had many of the same goals, a modernized high-speed auto route being the main one.
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| − | [[Highway]]s in the United States are distinguished from regular [[road]]s by two major features. First, highways have no [[traffic signal]]s, so that cars can move unobstructed by cross traffic. Second, highways have what is called "full control of access",<ref>[http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/HTM/2003r1/part1/part1a.htm MUTCD 2003], definition of "Freeway"</ref> meaning that the entry and exit [[ramp]]s are bottlenecks that can be closed off in times of [[national emergency]]. This capability was added during the [[Cold War]], when it seemed likely that the highways would occasionally have to be used as [[landing strip]]s for American [[bomber]]s. In practice, highways in the United States are very rarely used for this purpose.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/23/plane.on.highway.ap/index.html "Plane lands on Wisconsin highway"], ''CNN.com'', July 23, 2007</ref>
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| − | ==Taxpayer support==
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| − | The National Highway System is paid for with [[tax]] money, primarily the 18.4-cent federal [[gasoline tax]]. However, since most of the roads in the highway system have already been completed, very little of this money actually goes toward highway construction, and most of it is consumed by the [[bureaucracy]] itself. For this reason and others, Presidential Candidate [[John McCain]] has proposed a [[gas tax holiday]], during which time the gasoline tax would be suspended and the money that would otherwise be spent on "maintaining" the completed highway system would instead be spent on actually ''using'' it.
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| − | Democrat [[Hillary Clinton]] has supported Senator McCain's proposal for lower taxes, but [[Barack Obama]] does not.
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| − | ==References==
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| − | <references/>
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| − | [[Category:Transportation]]
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