You can drive from San Francisco to Paterson, New Jersey, on Interstate 80 without paying a cent (save for petrol and the occasional meal). Or so it would seem. The truth is that America's huge network of interstate highways-or freeways, as they are often ironically known-chews up enormous amounts of money. The last proper highway-funding bill was passed in 1998 after much wrangling. Grandly named the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, it cost $218 billion and covered the period until September 2003. It has been extended six times as Congress debates how much to inflate its replacement. The Senate originally floated a $318 billion bill; that has since been combined with a House bill and reduced to a more acceptable $292 billion until 2009. Showing rare restraint, George Bush has indicated that he won't sign any bill exceeding $256 billion.
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