Common sense solution. A (usually unspecified) way to make a problem vanish without inconveniencing any job creators or real Americans, or making them pay taxes. Usage: “All across this country, women are standing up and speaking out for common sense solutions.”

Sen. Jim Thune (R-S.D.) signaled Sunday that Republicans might be open to negotiating increasing the gas tax in order to pay for the highway infrastructure spending bill that expires in May.

In an interview on "Fox News Sunday," Thune said that while he is opposed to increasing the gas tax, lawmakers will need to "keep all options" available when they return to Washington this week.

As a policy matter, this sounds quite sensible. As we discussed last week, the Highway Trust Fund is generally supposed to be financed by a federal gas tax, which hasn’t been raised in over two decades. Since Republicans won’t allow an increase, transportation financing has become far more challenging.

Indeed, because GOP lawmakers have refused to even consider raising the federal gas tax, federal transportation projects will face impossible hurdles for many years to come. Murphy and Corker acknowledged yesterday that the purchasing power of the gas tax “is approximately 63% of what it was in 1993, and continues to decline.”

So, as of yesterday, a bipartisan proposal is on the table that would address a serious economic problem in the short and long term. Problem solved? Not quite.

For one thing, the right is already screaming bloody murder. Republicans may be divided, but there’s one unifying belief that nearly every GOP official embraces: taxes should never go up on anyone, by any amount, at any time, for any reason.

Supporters of the failed measure said it would have created tens of thousands of construction jobs and lifted the still-struggling economy. But Republicans unanimously opposed it for its tax surcharge on the wealthy and spending totals they said were too high.

Restoring upper-level tax rates to their levels during the Clinton administration, a dark time of peace and prosperity when no one bothered to become rich because it was too painful. Usage: “If you want to punish successful people, vote for Democrats.” Synonym: punishing job creators. Usage: “We shouldn’t be punishing job creators.”