Obama floats plan to tax cars by the mile

Nothing like this is coming from the Obama administration. There have been several versions of a mileage tax proposed, the earliest by Republicans. Studies were done on taxing mileage under Tim Pawlenty (R-Minnesota) in 2007, 2008, and 2009.

In 2001 in Oregon, Bruce Starr (R) chaired the 2001 Road User Fee Task Force.
The Road User Fee Task Force was established through HB 3946, passed by the 2001 Oregon Legislative Assembly. (House and Senate leaders were both republican)

According to the Starr (R) plan:

In 2001, the Oregon State Legislature authorized the creation of the Road User Fee Task Force to examine various revenue raising alternatives for replacing Oregon’s gas tax as the primary source of revenues for repairing, maintaining, and building Oregon’s roads.

The purchasing power of the state’s gas tax has steadily eroded over the years for several reasons:

• the gas tax has not kept pace with inflation;
  
• voters have opposed increases in the gas tax; and
  
• the fuel efficiency of new vehicles, especially hybrids and alternative-fuel vehicles, continues to increase, resulting in less gas tax paid.
  

What's disturbing about articles like this one, is that the authors seem to go out of their way to ignore the fact the it's the REPUBLICANS that are proposing them, but then they turn around and blame democrats for the existence of such a proposal.

It's just like the Health Care reform debate. Mitt Romney implemented "Romneycare", universal health care in Massachusetts, that goes far beyond even what Obamacare proposed to do, yet he's taken no heat from it from the Republican establishment or those idiots at Fox "news".

And Romneycare failed, just like Obamacare will fail and cost this country more than we can afford.

I hope it does come about.
I hope Obama signs it.

Then he can lose (in 2012) in the worst defeat since the motorcycle race between Pinky Tuscadero and the Fonz.

For the kids in the audience, just wiki it.

Earlier active thread here.

And since I have lately doubted the ATS community to actually research a topic and formulate a coherent argument save a few select posters I have run across....

I give you the undated proposed Transportation Opportunities Act (Gotta love buzz words in our 'acts') as reported from the sourced article:

Undated Proposed Transportation Opportunities Act

A quick note; the Department of Transportation is an Executive Branch office, which makes it an administration proposal. Maybe not straight from President Obama, but he is the head of that branch, which means anything that comes out of a bureaucratic office under his branch is effectively his. If people can make it a stretch to say "Bush's tax cuts" and "Clinton's balanced budget" when both of those are settled in Congress, than I am sure they can see this as an administration led and floated plan.

ETA: Should take this to Cent's post as stated previously he already started this argument...

reply to post by beezzer


Weren't those two on the same team? Think you meant the Malachi Twins v. Pinky and the Fonz

Romney care did fail, I think that talking point was kept under the republicans hat in order to spare Romney and his 2012 run, instead all we got was b.s. about death panels.

It would be one thing if they replaced a gas tax with a mileage tax, but this is a supplement to the gas tax. The cowards are proposing it instead of proposing to raise gas taxes more, as they know how that would go over.

If you backtrack the source of these proposals, you'll see this is not coming from Obama or his camp.

payment could take place electronically at filling stations.

Invest in gas cans!

But seriously, how to implement such a scheme? People will avoid the tax to the best of their abilities, which are quite high in the internet age.

And you lot are going to reelect the joker.. You may as well save time and hassle just hand your entire paycheck to obama every month.. After all big brother will take care of you.. Wont he ?

Already happening due to escalating gas and diesle prices, and all because of liberals and democrats keeping us from drilling for oil in our own country and making us buy it from our enemies.

Not sure how he is going to get re-elected unless you believe in polls like CNN's, otherwise the majority of this country is tired of the s.o.b.

This just in!!! Obama is floating the idea of taxing how many breaths we take.

It's getting to the point where Obama thinks he can just do whatever he wants. Reminds me of the George Bush era... it's too bad these politicians are all basically the same person.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


God bless your rationality and research, Blackmarketeer!

Also, Republican Ray LaHood, Transportation Secretary, was the one to bring this up in 2009.
article

Yes. Replacing is one thing, in addition to is another. "User fees" were the conservative answer to less/no taxes. Instead of telling voters that there was no free lunch, that services and infrastructures still needed to be paid for, user fees quietly replaced taxes.

Mileage Tax Plan Nixed By Obama

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Friday rejected his transportation secretary's suggestion that the administration consider taxing motorists based on how many miles they drive instead of how much gasoline they buy.

"It is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters, when asked for the president's thoughts about Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's suggestion, raised in an interview with The Associated Press a daily earlier.

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 told the AP.

LaHood is a republican, he was appointed by Bush in 2006 and remained in the position after Obama came into office.

I posted in a duplicate thread but thought I'd post here too.....

This old ploy rears it's head again.

They will keep pushing this (quietly) until so many people are used to the idea that implementing it will be seen as inevitable.

Fight it BIG TIME.

Why?.....because it is a grand scheme to add tracking and profiling abilities to vehicles and their owners/drivers. Motorcyclists in particular who are usually the sole user of the bike.

Remember, there is a thing called Automatic Numberplate Recognition System (ANRS), already in use in the UK and probably elsewhere so they're getting there already.

Fitting individual trackers to cars will only create huge costs for drivers and even transport restrictions. What if your tracker breaks? Would you be arrested if you drove the car for driving without paying taxes....stupid!

Blind spots where the system cannot be read.
Counterfeit hacking of systems.
Massive administration costs.
Inconvenience when selling or buying a vehicle and transferring ownership.

Oh!...hang on....LET'S CHIP AND TRACK THE INDIVIDUAL TO OVERCOME ALL THOSE PROBLEMS.

No thanks.

Originally posted by centurion1211
Earlier active thread here.

and another thread here...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Please post your comments in either thread.
Closed.