Trump may raise the gas tax to help fix America's crumbling roads

Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

A pothole is pictured on the street of Los Angeles, California February 12, 2016. Nearly two-thirds of Americans would support roadway user fees to help fix the country's crumbling transportation infrastructure, according to a survey to be published on April 28, 2016 that was seen by Reuters.

President Donald Trump said on Monday that he would consider increasing the federal gasoline tax as long as the proceeds go to improvements for US highways, Bloomberg News reported.

"It's something that I would certainly consider," Trump told Bloomberg. "The truckers have said that they want me to do something as long as that money is earmarked to highways."

Currently, the federal tax on gasoline is 18.4 cents per gallon and the tax on diesel is 24.4 cents per gallon.

Hiking the gasoline tax would certainly be a hotly debated issue because of the impact it would have on US consumers' pocketbooks. But there's no getting around the fact that America's highways and other critical infrastructure systems are in dire need of costly repairs.

According to the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2017 Infrastructure Report Card, which is published every four years, US infrastructure gets a D+ grade. It got the same grade in 2013.

The ASCE estimates the US needs to spend some $4.5 trillion by 2025 to improve the state of the country's roads, bridges, dams, airports, schools, and more.

The report breaks down the state of infrastructure in 16 different categories. Here's a look at how each segment of America's infrastructure scored, according to the ASCE report.