Posted on 02/20/2009 7:45:39 AM PST by mmanager
WASHINGTON (AP) — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says he wants to consider taxing motorists based on how many miles they drive rather than how much gasoline they burn — an idea that has angered drivers in some states where it has been proposed.
Gasoline taxes that for nearly half a century have paid for the federal share of highway and bridge construction can no longer be counted on to raise enough money to keep the nation's transportation system moving, LaHood said in an interview with The Associated Press.
"We should look at the vehicular miles program where people are actually clocked on the number of miles that they traveled," the former Illinois Republican lawmaker said.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Ha! This is GREAT!
Does this mean that little rice burners will now pay the same tax as a gas guzzling suburban for the same miles driven!?
Sweet!
Doesn’t it result in the same thing? If you drive more miles, you buy more gas.
This means that the Hybrid drivers also get hosed.
Only if you believe that they will rescind the gasoline tax.
Good luck with that...
I think the transportation secretary may have “mis-spoken” on this subject. I am sure what he MEANT to say was “...taxing how much we drive may AUGMENT gasoline tax...”
pres. Obeyme will be speaking with him about his little “mistake” in the near future...
GPS Chip. Go ahead and try.
Mr. LaHood you are a fool.
We are already taxed on the miles we drive. The more miles we drive the more gas we must buy and the more taxes that are paid.
You are a fool.
I love the idea of a prius driver paying more for his 100 mile commute than I pay for my gashog SUV 15 mile trip to the supermarket
But it aint gonna happen- Taxpayers will end up with the elevator AND the shaft on this one
Almost. Actually, however, it reduces incentives for fuel-efficiency, in that you get taxed the same regardless of your MPG, which decreases the cost difference between efficient and non-efficient vehicles.
Exactly! That why the robber barons (Socialist Politicians) are changing their MO!
They are just getting started.
Gas tax, mileage tax, road tax, dog tax, television tax, sewer tax, environmental tax, packaging tax, flying tax, an ever increasing sales tax and .....
all on top of Pork Plan I. (Pork Plan II soon to follow).
Slap your democrap friends around with this (if you still have any).
fixed.
Stealth tracking ... Orwell at his best
Carpooling, but then it will be a tax on the number of people in our cars.
No problem, that GPS chip will have a lovely storage spot on a shelf in my garage. I’ll take it out for the occasional Sunday drive... but that’s that.
Little by little these Obamaphiles will realize what they got themselves into. Voter remorse is on the way.
1. Stop using gas tax money to pay for “mass transit”
2. Make the people that ride the bus or train pay for it.
The real reason the Rats love this(RINOs also), is that it adds to govt bureaucracy. Somebody has to administer and inspect to do this. That will add hundreds of new state jobs with all the big bene’s. Plus hundreds of new inspection stations. Millions in computers and fines etc.
The gas tax is just too easy. Basically, mileage comes down to the weight of the vehicle..heavier worse mileage..and wear and tear on the roads is based on weight and speed..so all an all the “fairest” way to tax is by fuel taxes.
Then they will tax walking.
Bingo. It's a sucker bet. We'd wind up with both.
So they will tax electric cars the same as gas-hogs?
Something about not enough extra electrical power. ;^)
Okay, so we'll just cut some welfare spending, right?
RIGHT?
Oh, okay.
Bullcrap!...once they institute this what makes anyone think they will never raise gas taxes again?....it’s the slow stranglehold of socialism to control you!
Park the trucks and make an efficient railroad system happen. Road damage is disproportionate to vehicle weight. If they built the roads correctly and didn’t use salt and didn’t have trucks, the roads would last almost forever. No need to rebuild them every 4 to 5 years.
ya know the old adage..if it sounds too good
yeah until they find out like Bloomberg announced yesterday,
..44,000 NY’ers are paying 50% of the city's taxes..a third of NY’ers don't pay taxes......and what happens when the 44,000 move out because of high taxes?.....oh sh*t, the jig is up....sound familiar?
If they used the portion of the gas and property tax that is supposed to go to roads, instead of putting it all in a general fund, they would have plenty of money to repair the roads. When it goes into a general fund, who knows where the money goes. A general fund is a perfect way to hide money and graft.
My apologies. I thought it was appropriate to respond based on what the article says!
If this isn't going to be an illegal restriction on interstate commerce (travel) than I'm a monkey's uncle (oops, un-PC choice of words, change immediately to "I'm a monkey's aunt").
Leni
Seriously. “Replace”. Hah. When Hell freezes over.
I know what the article said; the question is whether you believe they will do it or not.
The most likely solution would be to accept the chip or pay quadruple. They will look at the distance you travel daily to and from work and find some formula that punishes you for being productive.
Remember those who live in “government” housing and take “public” transportation that travel on “public” roads would not be subject to the tax.
You must be punished for not feeling guilty about your wealth, sir. Deal with it.
Really?
What was all that "Bust the Highway Trust" stuff about years back? (My recollection is that the gas tax was bringing in a lot more money than they were spending on roads so they wanted to use what was left over for other stuff, i.e. for something other than highways.)
ML/NJ
oops..left out there are 8 million NY’ers
Then they will tax how much oxygen we inhale and exhale.
Leni
It won’t replace the gasoline tax,
it will be in addition to the gasoline tax.
And everyone knows that you create a new tax, but the old one never goes away entirely. There will still be state and local taxes on gasoline and they may increase them once the federal tax is removed.
Lovely. The socialist 0bama administration is really knocking all of those looney-lefty big government ideas out of the park.
Americans aren’t going to go for this. The idea that these nimrods will be able to track where we are at all times is just plain scary.
I bet they’ll have a chip scanning program and ticket you if you do not have the unit installed... Yet another money grab by the government. Enhanced revenue for all.
Gotta love it though — these dirty hippies yell about fuel efficiency and mandate it. We achieve the goals, and the realize — whoops — less tax revenue.
They raid the ISTEA money for ridiculous pork projects, but don’t have the political will to raise the gas tax because we’d revolt. So they think up a new hair brained scheme to get the revenue instead.
Idiots.
Heck, we're already there. If you carry a cell phone, you're already carrying a personal bugging device and a tracking device. The Feds can turn on the microphone and listen in on you even if you're not making a call.
The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations. The technique is called a "roving bug," and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-150467.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_phone_tracking
Don’t forget, as we lose jobs and cannot sell our homes, we will have to drive further to get to the job that pays us less.
And chips are wonderful things. Once a chip is installed, you can adopt the readers for so many things—regulating travel, tolls on what used to be non toll roads, tracking criminals, tracking gun owners, tracking gas guzzlers, tracking just about anything.
And, if the chip is installed at the manufacturing point imagine the bookkeeping nightmares when you sell your car. Change the chip—only at federally regulated places and for $50.
This is the sign of the freaking beast.
last sentence of article....
The devices also could be programmed to charge higher rates to vehicles that are heavier, like trucks that put more stress on roadways, Atkinson said.
People started buying more fuel efficient vehicles, and lowered the amount of taxes they paid.
Now, you’d think, according to their rhetoric, that they would think this was a good thing - more fuel efficient vehicles on the road.
But, no, instead, they reveal themselves - they want to control and punish your MOVEMENT. This will result, as some have already stated, in people buying
LESS EFFICIENT
vehicles, because they won’t be taxed on the gas they use.
Leftists reveal their intentions sometimes in the policies that they propose. Their intention here is to limit your travel.
I see the gps signal blocker market as an investment opportunity. We will jam em.
The government is trying to become our master. The time is coming to put it back in its place.
“Then they will tax walking”.....
The Seattle City Council was considering a few creative new taxes awhile back....Taxing shoes and toilet paper!...How much socialism can we stand?....
“...Doesn’t it result in the same thing? If you drive more miles, you buy more gas....”
We’re talking politicians here. They are not only not the sharpest knife in the drawer, they are tubules of excrement.
Yes. Three obvious conclusions.
1. This will be an additional tax, not a replacement for tax per gallon.
2. This will require a new bureaucracy, belonging to the gov employees union, for which they can hire their family and friends for secure jobs at a time when everyone is being thrown out of work.
3. This will be a wonderful way to spy on people by keeping records of when and where they drive, in exact detail. Not quite as good as an embedded chip, but that’s coming later as part of the medical tracking plan that was included in the Porkulus bill.
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