When President Barack Obama referred to his infrastructure plan in the State of the Union speech, he conveniently left out his plans to dramatically increase Americans' taxes on driving through toll roads and public private partnerships (P3s).

Here’s what he said:

Building this new energy future should be just one part of a broader agenda to repair America’s infrastructure.  So much of America needs to be rebuilt.  We’ve got crumbling roads and bridges; a power grid that wastes too much energy; an incomplete high-speed broadband network that prevents a small business owner in rural America from selling her products all over the world.

During the Great Depression, America built the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge.  After World War II, we connected our states with a system of highways.  Democratic and Republican administrations invested in great projects that benefited everybody, from the workers who built them to the businesses that still use them today.

In the next few weeks, I will sign an executive order clearing away the red tape that slows down too many construction projects.  But you need to fund these projects.  Take the money we’re no longer spending at war, use half of it to pay down our debt, and use the rest to do some nation-building right here at home.

The speech went on for more than an hour, and three paragraphs is all the President had to say about infrastructure, and yet the U.S. House of Representatives is taking up its version of the Federal Highway bill this week. So there is much ado in Congress about our nation’s highways, and little acknowledgment or solutions posed to address the chronic underfunding by Congress other than levying toll taxes. Obama and his Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood have made tolling and P3s the centerpiece of the President’s transportation agenda since taking office.

The House wants a bill that’s only funded by the gas taxes collected, which sounds good and fiscally responsible, but due to Congress’ failure to either raise the gas tax or end the practice of wasteful earmarks, there is a major shortage of funds to properly address our nation’s infrastructure needs. Further starving the gas tax also translates into unrestrained reliance on tolling to make-up the shortfalls. Congress has been content not to prioritize funding for roads (the arteries of daily living), and all too happy to bloat spending in just about every other arena.

However, both the House and Senate wish to increase debt and borrowing by increasing the TIFIA loan program by nearly a factor of ten up to $1 BILLION a year. TIFIA loans have provided the lifeblood for P3s that sell off our public roads to private equity sharks. The first such loan went to subsidize a private corporation on a deal in San Diego on its South Bay Expressway that summarily went bankrupt 3 years later. The taxpayers lost nearly $80 million on the deal and the Council of Governments (ie - taxpayers) had to bail it out and take it over.

So a continuation of the TIFIA program is fiscally reckless and tantamount to a special interest giveaway that’s rife with abuses. P3s are government-sanctioned monopolies that charge taxpayers a premium to access their own public highways -- 75 cents a mile, like adding $15 to every gallon of gas you buy -- much higher than publicly-run tollways. P3s also include sweetheart provisions that guarantee congestion on the free lanes through non-compete agreements.

The President devoted much of his speech to jobs and the economy and clearly wanted to show his sympathy for those in difficult economic situations. But to ask Americans to pay the equivalent of $15 for a gallon a gas in order to get to work or get their highways fixed, and to act as if the Administration is not interested in raising taxes, is disingenuous at best.

Americans must voice their concerns about this oppressive tax increase on driving before Congress passes and the President signs such a punitive, irresponsible federal highway bill.