The federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon. It's been at that level since 1993. If it had been adjusted for inflation since it would be at 28 cents now. For someone using 25 gallons of gas per week, increasing it by 9.6 cents per gallon would cost an additional $2.40 per week and $124.80 per year, assuming no change in overall demand. That isn't nothing, and any additional burden on poor people is nontrivial, but it doesn't make "it will hurt the poor" a particularly compelling argument against increasing the gas tax.
