A better solution for encouraging people to drive more fuel-efficient cars is to impose an excise tax based on engine displacement and physical size of a car--something that has been done in Europe and Japan for several decades.
Posted on 03/24/2011 4:37:42 PM PDT by DoctorBulldog
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) this week released a report that said taxing people based on how many miles they drive is a possible option for raising new revenues and that these taxes could be used to offset the costs of highway maintenance at a time when federal funds are short.
The report discussed the proposal in great detail, including the development of technology that would allow total vehicle miles traveled (VMT) to be tracked, reported and taxed, as well as the pros and cons of mandating the installation of this technology in all vehicles.
"In the past, the efficiency costs of implementing a system of VMT charges — particularly the costs of users' time for slowing and queuing at tollbooths — would clearly have outweighed the potential benefits from more efficient use of highway capacity," CBO wrote. "Now, electronic metering and billing are making per-mile charges a practical option.
[...]
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
But, seriously, how do you think they going to tax your mileage? I'll tell you how, they are going to keep track of you via a GPS unit installed in your car!
Now, I'm no Constitutional scholar like Our Dark Overlord, but that sounds to me like it might just infringe upon the 4th Amendment...
Gas taxes should only be used for things that get driven on by cars and nothing else.
Ooops, that should be, “...how do you think they ARE going to tax ...”
We’re already taxed for the miles we drive through the taxes collected on the gas we buy to drive those miles.
Maybe we should ask them to tax public servants on how far they travel in those jets they seem to all have...
Cheers
GPS units need antennas.
Think Faraday cage.
Why hasn’t the government strapped a meter to the chest of each American and started charging us for the full value of the air we use?
The GPS would be unconstitutional, but it would be efficient. Have you ever known the federal government to do anything efficient?
So, I predict they'll create the Department of Federal Mileage Inspection. That should be good for 15-20K SEIU jobs. Every year, you'll be required to get your mileage inspected, where you'll also have to pay an annual inspection fee and whatnot.
Wicked bastards!
The leviathan never stops inventing ways to confiscate our money.
You might want to delete that before they read it. No need to help 'em.
PS - it won't be the air we breath, it will be the CO2 we exhale.
federal toll booths on federal highways would be my guess
That’s probably next.
The 4th amendment to what? Certainly you jest with this bunch of Marxists in power? He'll do it with an Executive Order also specifying what kind of school lunches public school children must eat. Then it'll be 'for the children' don't 'cha know?/sarc
Try it thugs.
Eliminate 800% of all government agencies and fire everyone that works for them and WE DON’T NEED REVENUE ENHNACEMENT!
Stamps, tea....soda, mileage, it’s getting old. They believe they can just ‘help them selves don’t they?
GPS can be disabled.
Its time for pitchforks and torches at the Capitol, folks.
GPS units need antennas. Think Faraday cage.They'll just make tampering, disabling or destroying the tracking units a Class D felony.
I'm sure the government envisions a "minimum tax" for people who try to circumvent the mandatory GPS mileage metering devices.
Ever hear of rolling back odometers?
Used-car salesmen do it every day.
Where are our reps on this? time to neuter this beast.
It sounds to me like the ones in my cars would malfunction.
Strap one on our butt too....”exit tax”
But this is to tax the selfish Prius drivers who dodge the gas taxes but still use the roads we pay for. Start calling it a Prius tax, and it will die a well-deserved death (I'd call it a Volt tax, but the new GM will never sell enough of those dinosaurs for anyone to care).
These people are simply insane....
“he noted the possibility of a VMT tax as a way to solve the problem of collecting less in taxes as people move to more fuel-efficient vehicles.”
HA, even more reason to NOT buy a Prius of Dolt, use less fuel and get punished with new taxes!
Just stop buying the damn “Green” machines, I think I need a car with two big engines, might as well have fun while I can.
If they can estimate a census, they can simply estimate what every person inhales and exhales.
I had heard that the technology would be at the pump, where current gas taxes are already collected. Everytime you pulled up to the pump, equip in your vehicle would communicate with the pump.
I don't know, the city where I live charges sewer rates based on water usage. If you water your lawn a lot in the summer, your sewer bill goes through the roof. It is a nice way to guarantee brown lawns and boy do we have more than our share.
This mileage tax sounds unconstitutional. Taxing someone on their movement around the county in a car, restricts my freedom of movement. If can’t affort the tax, I can’t move freely about the county. Something about “life liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. Next thing they will tax us for how much air we breath, the “O2” tax, and then you need the CO2 discharge tax, which is higher for athletes who give off more CO2!
Where do all the federal gas taxes go?
Suppose we had this tax. Wouldn’t some of the greens be arguing that it ought to be replaced with a gas tax, to encourage people to replace gas guzzlers with more fuel-efficient cars?
Well, there goes the CBOs last clinging threads of credibility.
I think its’ gettin’ to be time to tax that gubmint ass.
100$ rate.
No credits.
Lock your bathroom doors folks. The SOBs will be installing counters on your toilets next and taxing you by the excrement unit.
To pay for Barney Frank’s rent boys
Does this mean they will get rid of the tax on Gasoline? I’m sure.
Juat how many taxes do they need to work on roads. Especially when it on took Japan 12 days to repair a destroyed roadway.
Gas tax. ( oh yeah that goes into the General Fund just like SS Taxes) Yearly license renewal taxes. Taxes taxes taxes. STOP spending!
I figure the one on the chest can do double duty? Heartbeat Tax
And, oh let me guess, GE will manufacture the monitoring devices?
It ain’t about the revenue, it’s about the tracking. We’ll all be turned into mini Al Capones cheating on the confirmed mileage.
Exactly!
Cheers
More tax and spend from democrats. The GOP House would be crazy to go along with this big brother scheme, let the wingnuts own it.
A better solution for encouraging people to drive more fuel-efficient cars is to impose an excise tax based on engine displacement and physical size of a car--something that has been done in Europe and Japan for several decades.
That's all it's about. They say no information would be transmitted, except for the police who want it, and the juvenile and divorce courts, and the IRS, etc etc.
That's the whole plan. To keep track of our movements AND to decide just who gets to drive how many miles. (Shades of WW11 gas ration books.
I remember back in Carter's orchestrated gas 'shortage', I was living in Calif...the democrap senator from SAn Francisco, who had his own 5 car garage full of Mercedes, remarking that the common people didn't need to be driving around anywhere they wanted to. That is the mindset of the bourgeoisie - still. They really believe they should be controlling the daily lives of the proletarian peasants.)
Their highway miles money is collected from every gallon of gas we buy - it's where it goes and doesn't go from there that is the question.
I have a son who is a longhauler and he can tell when he crosses certain state lines because of the condition of the roads.
Indeed, I have even b een able to tell when talking with him on the cell (calm down, he uses a Blue Tooth) that I can HEAR it.
The common denominator?
Long time republican governed states - smooth roads and great truck stops. The money collected for roads ACTUALLY goes to the roads. What a concept.
Democrap run states: the opposite - like Pennsylvania and Illinois. Their roads are abominable. AND they have the highest gas tax, the most tolls, etc.
WE must NOT let this tax per miles get any traction. They've been trying for sometime.
We all need to keep in mind that when they say that they're going to pass a law, that really means NOTHING. All laws are subject to revision. Both through acts of Congress and conference committees.
Who was it? Lott? that said that laws were made to wash out in conference committees?
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