Several Southeastern states signing on to the fuel tax act get huge infusions of federal money for the military bases they house. That especially includes Texas, where military construction has played a significant role in helping that state sustain one of the strongest economies in the United States during the Great Recession while dozens of military-donor states suffer.

So how about we let the fuel-tax-donor states go their own way, and the military-spending-donor states go their own way, and the port states, and the water states, and so on and so on?

The idea is so stupid it probably doesn’t rate a column in a trade magazine. And yet, in this Congress of dunces, that’s what passes for great thinking from 14 percent of the Senate.