Posted on 01/23/2021 8:42:50 AM PST by george76
When President Joe Biden announced former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg as his pick for Transportation Secretary, many scratched their heads. Why would he tap someone who oversaw a small budget, in a small town, in the midwest for such a roll? That puzzle is finally coming together.
It turns out that Biden favors Buttigieg's transportation views, specifically the idea that America should move away from the gas tax and instead opt into a tax based on the number of miles a person travels. It would be a new way to provide cash for the Highway Trust Fund, which currently funding from the federal gas tax. As it currently stands, the federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel.
Liberal states, like California, Oregon, Washington State, and Colorado are already contemplating this so-called "alternative."
Biden's administration would have to figure out how to pay for his $1 trillion infrastructure plan, which includes $160 billion for the transportation department.
During his confirmation hearing with the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on Thursday, Buttigieg explained his take on the gas tax.
"I think all options need to be on the table. As you know, the gas tax has not been increased since 1993, and it has never been pegged to inflation, and it's one of the reasons why the current state of Highway Trust Fund is that there's more going out than coming in," Buttigieg said about a potential tax increase. "In the long term, we need to bear in mind also that as vehicles become more efficient and as we pursue electrification, sooner or later, there will be questions about whether the gas tax can be effective at all."
Instead, the transportation nominee wants to consider taxing Americans on the number of miles they drive.
"A lot has been suggested recently about the idea of vehicle-miles-traveled-based, so if we're committed to the idea of user-pays, then part of how you might do that would be based on vehicle miles traveled," he said. "But that raises, of course, concerns about privacy and there remains some technological questions too. These are examples of some of the things that could be part of the solution, but I know that's going to have to be a conversation, not only in the administration, but with Congress too."
Should the Biden administration move forward with taxing Americans based on the number of miles they drive on any given day, rural America would be the ones disproportionately impacted. They live further outside of metro areas. Many travel 20 to 30 miles one way to work or to do any kind of major grocery shopping. Farmers, especially those who live even further out – a few hours from a metropolitan area – would be punished because they don't live in the inner cities.
This is a prime example of why rural folks feel forgotten about. It's always about what's best for those who live in the cities, not about those who grow and transport your food, or do the dirty work no one else is willing to do. It's about those who work in fancy offices in New York City, not the loggers and miners who work in dangerous conditions to provide heating options for the very people who despise them.
Nope, toll cameras expanded everywhere. Surveillance nation. Pay your gas bill comrade or we will block your title.
One of 2 things will happen in the Senate as far his confirmation is concerned:
1. Our Senators will passionately defend the interest of the rural states and make the confirmation as difficult as possible.
2. Cave and say that the President deserves his candidate for the Cabinet.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say #2 will occur.
Gas tax does this. The more miles you drive the more gas you consume. The more gas you consume the more tax you pay. Simple. However this doesn’t take into account electric cars.
Reporting your mileage could also mean reporting where you are going or have been. Are we soon to see government brown shirts asking...Citizen why did you go there, what were you doing and who were you meeting with? Could allowed travel be tied to “social credits”.... Citizen we see you did not attend the anti fascism rally or failed to show good attitude in your mandatory anti white racism meetings so we must now restrict your travel.
The owners of Teslas, Priuses and Honda Civics wont be happy campers. Corvette and Ford-350 owners will be sitting pretty.
You'll find this amusing, at least.
"On a Sunny Monday morning, Buttigieg is musing about redeeming American credibility abroad, sipping from his coffee mug emblazoned with JFK’s face, when his husband plops onto the living-room couch, picks up the blanket next to him and throws it on the floor in mock disgust. “Do we have to have this hideous blanket?” he said. The blanket is full of dog hair. “Can we put our nice blanket there?”Buttigieg met Chasten Glezman, then a Chicago grad student, on the dating app Hinge in 2015. They talked over FaceTime for a few weeks before Chasten drove to South Bend for their first real date, at an Irish bar famous for its Scotch eggs.
Pete hates the way Chasten folds T-shirts. Chasten gets grumpy when they go too long without food, and Pete doesn’t get it. “You’re like, ‘Oh, here, I packed a bag of almonds and a thing of beef jerky,’” Chasten says. “I hate nuts, and he eats nuts all the time.” “High in protein, good for you,” Pete counters. “See!” Chasten says. “I want a meal, and he’s like, ‘We’ll just have a handful of nuts.’” Also, he tells his husband, “You do chew really loudly.”
That is the ONE thing that could ice Butt's nom, is if some clever journolist re-interviewed his flaming queen and asked personal questions.
The source of the funds, a gas tax or a mileage tax, is unimportant. It will still be misdirected to feel-good social programs and into the coffers of “connected” enterprises.
They won’t care. They’re terrified that Karen from yoga class will unfriend them on Facebook. They only care about their social standing. Things like complaining about taxes is what those icky working class people that don’t watch and talk about trendy TV shows do.
The left wants all of us living in highrise apartments within walking distance to our jobs, all to “save the planet”, of course.
They don’t give a damn about rural America so long as their arugula and kale are fresh.
So what’s that work out to be?
Let’s say they start a just .01 per mile driven. A paltry $250 per year. But we know they need to raise more money than that as the gasoline taxes generate more revenue.
Plus as the gasoline cars start to go offline, the mileage tax will need to increase by 150% to account for the loss and inflation.
” Based on average mpg and miles driven, a person owning a gasoline vehicle pays between $141 and $398 in fuel taxes each year, depending upon the state in which the fuel is purchased” https://www.greencarcongress.com/2019/12/20191203-doetax.html
yep. And that is one device I refuse to use.
I do feel like it is incredibly intrusive and as an artificial intelligence device feeding back to a computer, it doesn’t account for road conditions or situations that arise.
He sounds like an upper middle class soccer mom, which is why upper middle class soccer moms are worthless to depend upon when trying to save the country. We’re going to have to soldier on without them.
Cellphone tracking can be made useless, once you wrap it in my new “anti-tracking case!” Oh, that’ll be made against the law now, too? Like the license plate imaging defeating gizmos?
I remember all that bullshit I heard people saying for years about the democrats being “for the little guys-the working man”.
I don’t think so! Not when the want to tax the snot out of everything and make it impossible to defend ourselves, travel or get ahead.
NBD if it does not affect your renewal cost.
How about ALL that farm equipment that is mostly IN the fields...Only going short distances on highways???
And how exactly will they gather this information? ... Make you go to a garage to report your odometer once a month? When you register your car?
Nevada already requires one to report the current odometer reading, under penalty of perjury when you register or re-register your vehicle.
It won’t be .01 a mile.
It’ll be a minimum of .05 a mile.
They have no idea about life in rural America. Wait until fuel taxes hit diesel. When that happens, every thing that is transported by truck will get more expensive. Think groceries.
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