House GOP proposes transportation fund

From todays WaPo on the House GOP's plan to establish a transportation fund without the broad tax increases proposed by Kaine and the Senate Republocrats. (I'm not normally given to name calling, but I thought the one thing all Republicans could agree on was lower taxes, lower spending. We may fight on abortion, religion, etc. but when did we abandon lower taxes?)

As a resident of Northern Virginia, I'm all for spending more money on roads -- if you've never lived there, you can't possibly understand how big a mess it is. Without exaggeration, "Rush Hour" lasts from 7-10 AM, and 4:30-7:30 PM. And that's if there are no accidents.

On a related note, while I'm sure we talked about this before, what was the logic for rejecting the regional plans Gov. Warner proposed, which would allow localities to tax themselves, if they chose, to pay for transportation? I'd vote against a tax increase normally, but if I knew the money would ONLY go to road projects around DC, I might vote for it.

UPDATE: In the comments, Will Vehrs has asked for a Northern Virginia road priority list, so I thought I'd see if any other NoVaites had thoughts.
My list: Expedite I66 widening, Widen Rt. 7, Rt. 50. I'd also like to see the parking lots expanded at Metro Stations Vienna, East and West Falls Church and Dunn Loring (though this may be a federal issue). Oh, and of course Metro to Dulles.