Posted on 02/27/2009 4:39:27 AM PST by Scanian
WASHINGTON -- Raise federal gasoline taxes to help pay for road projects?
Not during a recession, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has said.
Then how about moving toward a system that finances highway construction by charging motorists by the mile?
When LaHood suggested last week that be considered among other potential financing schemes, he got bushwhacked by the White House. "It is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration," the president's press secretary said.
With the administration's position seemingly clear, a special commission created by Congress is nonetheless endorsing those two ideas.
Its report Thursday warns that if government fails to find a new way to raise money, "we will suffer grim consequences in the future: unimaginable levels of congestion, reduced safety, costlier goods and services, an eroded quality of life, and diminished economic competitiveness as a nation."
The National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission says the current 18.4 cents a gallon gas tax and 24.4 cents a gallon diesel tax are not raising enough money to keep pace with the cost of highway, bridge and transit projects. The commission proposes lifting the gasoline tax by 10 cents per gallon and the diesel tax by 15 cents per gallon, and adjusting both for inflation.
The report also says fuel taxes increasingly will become a less reliable way to pay for highway construction as people drive more fuel efficient vehicles and the number of electric and alternative fuel cars and trucks grows.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I guess Wyoming will remain safely Republican!
And maybe the stupid people hibernating in the state north of them will wake up.
drive less less tax drive more taxed more, you want to raise that tax is one thing, a whole NEW TAX is another.
Instead, the money has been squandered on ridiculous Earmarks and Pork bike path projects, etc,,.
There may be a silver lining in all of this though; The public is suddenly beginning to wake up and are actually learning how badly this Government is running itself. Particularly the details of these ridiculous Earmarks. FOX news has increased it's audience by almost 40% while MSNBC & CNN have lost over half of theirs.
And, lately, FOX has really been exposing this Leftist BS and not cheer-leading for Chairman MAObama like all the other networks.
They were too kind to him during the campaign and before inauguration. Why, I do not understand as his agenda has been clear from the beginning. Maybe the extreme nature of its implementation has shocked some sense into them.
The American public never ceases to amaze. The bigger and more irresponsible government gets, the less the average citizen seems to pay attention to it. Which is exactly why we are in the shape that we are. When the public gets aroused for a change, the politicians do sit up and take notice. View Pelousy on gun control yesterday.
"The report recommends moving to such a tax, which would mean equipping cars and trucks with a device that uses GPS technology to track the number of miles driven and compute the tax owed.
If they can track the number of miles, what else can they track? And why would we EVER want to give them that power?
Let me tell you How it will be. There's one for you, Nineteen for me, 'Cause I'm the taxman. Yeah, I'm the taxman. Should five percent Appear too small, Be thankful I don't Take it all. 'Cause I'm the taxman. Yeah, I'm the taxman. If you drive a car, I'll tax the street. If you drive to city, I'll tax your seat. If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat. If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet. Taxman! 'Cause I'm the taxman. Yeah, I'm the taxman. Don't ask me what I want it for, (Uh-uh, Mr. Wilson.) If you don't want to pay some more. (Uh-uh, Mr. Heath.) 'Cause I'm the taxman. Yeah, I'm the taxman. And my advice to Those who die. (Taxman!) Declare the pennies On your eyes. (Taxman!) 'Cause I'm the taxman. Yeah, I'm the taxman, And you're working for no one but me. (Taxman!)
The Democrats had this thing planned carefully, well in advance as to how they were going to railroad all these Socialist plans on this country.
But it seems that they are somewhat startled as to how angry, almost in a rage that the public are starting to display.
They are back peddling for sure, but chairman MAO is not smart enough to realize what will happen if he passes much of this without Congress. He may very well try to do that.
They are desperate for revenue, which is why all of the ridiculous Crap & Trade, etc,.
How'd that happen? My speedometer cable broke!
“To city folk, guns are crime machines used by gangs and thugs”
To THIS city folk, my gun is PROTECTION from gangs and thugs.....
From the immortal words of Chuck D.....911 is a joke...
...easy on the city folk, people....
Many of us are on your side...
But, but, but, I thought that was a big part of the porkulus package.
Property tax on your car while you own it.
I think I’ll just buy a horse.
How'd that happen? My speedometer cable broke!
GPS my FRiend. Its a twofer for the libs. Raise more money as they shove us into econo-boxes, and be able to eventually track our whereabouts. GPS will be an essential tool for the coming police state.
I drive a 2003 Mitsubishi Galant. The tax on my car this year is $136.53. In edition, a $39.50 registration fee. Keep in mind, the is for an older, lower value car. Just imagine what someone driving a new SUV is paying.
In NC, we also have the annual inspection service which just recently went up $10. Another form of tax in the guise of “clean air and emissions”.
[The bigger and more irresponsible government gets, the less the average citizen seems to pay attention to it.]
It is a defense mechanism. It is easier to live in denial than to except reality and try to do something about it. This is truly a case of ignorance is bliss. I have often told my husband it would be much easier to be like many of our friends and just not know better, just believe the crap the media and politicians are spewing. Friends openly tell me all the time that they don’t want to discuss politics, they just don’t care, etc. It is much easier just to pretend the Gov’t has their best interests in mind—that the Gov’t is a force for good.
Here’s a novel idea......how about taking the taxes that were raised in the name of highway repair and police departments and use them for what they were intended? Instead of putting them in a general fund for the thieves.
In edition = In ADDITION!
Geesh!
As soon as this loony idea came close to being a real possibility, it would be shouted down by ... Jesse Jackson, Rev Al, the NAACP, NOW, and Latino Rights Groups as being racist. And for once the leftist whiny canard --
"Women, Minorities, and the Poor to be hit hardest"would be true.
Since many blue collar jobs are now located in the Suburbs instead of the city, its the "Working Poor" that live in the cities who do the 'reverse commuting'.
There's one NW Chicago suburb in mind that consists almost entirely manufacturing plants. The workers are mostly one of the above groups who live in Chi and have to drive to their barely above minimum wave jobs in this suburb.
This extra tax would kill them -- AND all the manufacturing plants after the workers have to quit to save money. Not that Jesse and Al, etc would care above the companies, but they would raise a BIG stink about 'their people' being 'unfairly' taxed.
(the mayor of this Suburb wouldn't be to pleased either. As it is he already hates Daley's guts and Dem's in general. And he isn't alone in that)
This is almost identical to the transportation policies currently being pushed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by Governor “Coupe” Deval Patrick (a known Obama crony) and James Aloisi, his Transportation Secretary. Even in the moonbat heavy state of Massachusetts, the public isn’t buying it.
Although the political strategy they employed was quite clever. Patrick (fraud) claimed the $0.19 cent gas tax hike was needed to stave off raising the tolls on the Pike and on the harbor tunnels, then his transportation department hiked the tolls anyway . . . with the “promise” that the hikes won’t go through if the General Court passes his gas tax. Now some solons in the General Court are saying that we might have to have both, anyways-—i.e., both the gas tax and the toll hikes.
Even in Massachusetts, a one-party state ruled by the Democrat Party, the Democrat Party can’t get its act straight.
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