Free Republic

On Sunday, the Senate released the final text of the so-called bipartisan (but really liberal) infrastructure bill — all 2,702 pages. According to Breitbart, the huge bill was written in secret for months outside the normal legislative process. Buried in the measure is a pilot program for a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee (MBUF) which is basically a long-term plan to make it too expensive to drive a car. One of the “fun” parts of the supposed bipartisan bill (fun for believers of the climate change hypothesis) can be found on page 511 of the measure, which you can...

Buried in the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act” in the U.S. Senate is approval for the Department of Transportation (DOT) to test a new federal tax on every mile driven by individual Americans. The bill directs Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to establish a pilot program to demonstrate a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee designed “to restore and maintain the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund.” The objectives of the pilot program include: To test the design, acceptance, implementation, and financial sustainability of a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee. To address the need for additional revenue for...

A federal judge Tuesday blocked Texas from allowing state troopers to stop vehicles carrying migrants on the grounds that they may spread COVID-19 as worries and new cases are rising along the U.S.-Mexico border. The temporary order by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone of El Paso is at least a short-term victory for the Biden administration, which had warned that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's plan would create more problems amid high levels of summer border crossings in Texas —- particularly in the Rio Grande Valley, which one U.S. official called the “epicenter of the current surge.” In a sign of...

There is a slow but steady encroachment on our privacy by government. It often comes with rational and admirable cover terms for a hidden agenda. A recent comment by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, during his conformation hearings, broached the subject of taxing car mileage based on GPS tracking. An immediate hue and cry went up from privacy organizations which saw it as an Orwellian intrusion. It was dropped like a hot potato by the White House. The EU is currently looking at another