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Posted on 01/17/2013 5:33:48 AM PST by Kaslin
Yet another "Trust Fund" is broke. This time, discussion involves an alleged "Transportation Trust Fund".
As with Social Security, there is no "Transportation Trust Fund", only a stack of unmarketable IOUs from one branch of government to another.
If there is any trust in the system, there shouldn't be, and soon won't be. Obama will surely see to that.
Grid Chicago reports Charging by the mile, a gas tax alternative, sees serious movement.
Because of vehicles with higher fuel efficiency, slightly less driving, and the gas tax not being changed since 1993, the motor vehicle fuel tax, or “gas tax”, has failed to pay for everything that Congress has legislated that it should pay for. The Highway Trust Fund, which includes the Mass Transit Account, has received several infusions of money from the “general revenue fund” – to the tune of over $60 billion.
But a new report from the Government Accountability Office, the congressional think tank focused on financing, past, present, and future, has made the country take a giant step forward in considering a switch to a fee that more accurately charges usage. The report, like all GAO studies, was commissioned by the House Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee.
The gas tax charges drivers based on their use of petroleum, different vehicles can go different distances on the same amount of petroleum: essentially, some pay less than others for the same use of the road. Additionally, the counts of how much people drive has decreased (called vehicle miles traveled, or VMT), yet our demand for funds to maintain and build new infrastructure outpaces the incoming revenues from the gas tax. Lastly, the federal gas tax hasn’t changed at all, sticking to a cool 18.4 cents per gallon (for non-diesel drivers) since 1993. ”While the gas tax was equal to 17 percent of the cost of a gallon of gas when it was set at its current level in 1993, it is now only 5 percent” (Streetsblog).
The Simpson-Bowles Commission, convened by President Obama to find strategies to improve the country’s fiscal situation in 2010, “called for an immediate 15 cent-per-gallon increase in the gas tax”.
An alternative to the gas tax is to charge people based on how much they drive, a mileage fee. This can be calculated in more than one way, and doesn’t require the use of a GPS system to track where people are going: pay-at-the-pump (or electric vehicle charging station), and prepaid, self-reporting system based on odometer readings.
An on-again, off-again move by the Obama administration to scrap the federal gas tax in favor of a pay-per-mile fee would boost the tab to Americans as high as 250 percent, raising their current tax of 18.4 cents a gallon to as high as 46 cents, according to a new government study.
But without a tax increase, said the Government Accountability Office study, the government's highway fund is going to go dry. One reason the fund is going broke: President Obama's push for fuel efficient cars has resulted in better mileage, and fewer stops at the pump.
The GAO study is just the latest review of federal spending that paints a grim picture of the nation's infrastructure. Just keeping spending at current levels, the GAO said, would require a near doubling of the gas tax to 32 cents a gallon, and that would jump to as high as 46 cents should the federal government add spending to fix crumbling infrastructure and build new roads.
One reason gas prices are so high is that the Feds impose a tax of 18.4 cents per gallon on gas. It’s 24.4 cents per gallon of diesel. We’ve had federal gas taxes since the 50’s to pay for highways and bridges, but since 1983, they started diverting about 20% of gas taxes to go to a Mass Transit Account that is supposed to pay for public transportation like buses and railways. So, those of us who don’t use mass transit are paying for those that do in the form of gas taxes. That’s socialism for you.
We’ve had the 18.4-cent per gallon tax since 1993 under the Clinton administration. Nowadays, with the further destruction of the dollar, that 18.4 cents just doesn’t buy what it used to. Now, the Highway Trust Fund (which includes the Mass Transit Account) is facing insolvency.
Some credit the loss of revenue to the fact that many are using more fuel-efficient cars and therefore not spending as much on gas. Isn’t that what Obama wanted? For people to use more “green” energy? And now, the Highway Trust Fund is running out of money.
That could be part of it, but billions of the gas tax revenues are used to fund pet mass transit projects, which those who drive cars generally don’t even use.
If states want to have public transportation, they should raise their own revenue and pay for it themselves instead of taking federal highway funds to build it. As for paying for highways and roads, we could cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Obama’s foreign policy expenditures and put those funds toward domestic infrastructure and not have to impose one penny of gas taxes to fund it.
I think an elevator tax should be imposed. The more floors you go up the higher the tax! Can you imagine the out cry if another administration came after cities the way Obama is going after the rural states. We have the trump card. They still have to eat.
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Sex tax is next.
A central socialist government device will be attached to your bedsprings. It will record and report to central whenever the springs move up and down repeatedly.
A bill will be sent to your residence for the number of tiems the above occurred times whatever Obama decides is fair.
He won’t pay anything unless Moochell is out of town and Rahm or Chris drops in.
I never thought of the fact that it is a hit on the mid-west and western states. It could end up costing them a bundle. I just don’t see how this would work anyway. I can immediately see some innovative business savvy person finding a way to roll back the electronic mileage tracker. Fraud would DEFINITELY be part of it and hard to control. Maybe they are just talking and it will never be implemented.
But sir I’m already paying a gas tax.
An excellent idea, that way the lazy folks will be paying their fair share. Of course the energitic and healthy folks can still take the tax free stairwells. H’mmm, will have to have a disability category for those who can’t do the stairs due to wheel chairs. I know. have folks to carry them to the top.
This is how an insane government destroys an economy.
What will this do to those areas whose economy totally relies on the willingness of VISITORS to drive their cars to vacation locations? Drive 400 miles for our annual stay at XXXXX....no way.
What will this nonsense do to the cost of food...food that must be transported over the highways to the market you try to shop at? Does the government think of that-—right!!
What will this do to the cost of EVERYTHING we require to live that is manufactured over 5 miles away?
Will you be able to continue the daily round trip drive to your “well paying” job 50 miles away, when a huge chunk of your salary goes to another increased tax?
In this, one of the largest countries in the world, families live miles apart. What will be the damage done to family unity, when even a Sunday visit becomes a financial burden?
Lord, please keep the government of the United States-——FAR AWAY FROM US.
The system is already being used by the military. When you fill up you have to enter the odometer reading. It’s supposed to prevent theft. They have an electronic key that activates the pump.
That will just help with “Project 21” and force people to move from rural areas into the cities. And then we can take the train from city to city; and build new train tracks to link more cities; think of the govenment jobs that will create to build new railroads.
Once again the oh so compassionate Democrats will tax the poor. When it comes to Dems. my motto is:
Don’t pay any attention to what they say, watch what they do.
“Transportation” spending has turned into a huge scam. The administration and press claims the nations “infrastructure” is “crumbling” as if roads are filled with potholes and bridges are collapsing, but if you look around your community, you will see that most “transportation” projects have a lot of unnecessary extras.
In my area, there are now sidewalks everywhere where people do not walk. One goes along about a mile stretch of fields and I never see anyone walking on it.
We also have had about five fancy electronic billboads added to the highways that probably cost a couple million. Are they nice? Yes. But are they worth running up trillion dollar deficits to have? No.
The number of road signs has tripled too. Its as if they can’t make them fast enough for our DOT to put up. Its crazy how many mile markers, turn signs and other road signs they can put up.
This is all crap that is not necessary. Add on top of it the fact that the DOT workers get paid premium wages and you see why transportation spending is so high. Probably about a third to half of it really isn’t necessary.
A much simpler solution is to do what many states have done: make the tax a percent of the product price. Sure, revenues will swing up and down, but within a predictable margin. The main advantage is that the mechanism to collect the tax is already in place and the need for a new agency is killed before it starts. Congress, however, won't go for this plan because it doesn't increase the number of federal employees as much as a "measure mile" tax would.
Ummm, how about spending less? Living within a set budget? Crazy talk, I know.
“Once again the oh so compassionate Democrats will tax the poor. When it comes to Dems. my motto is:
Don’t pay any attention to what they say, watch what they do.”
We live in very strange times. Stupid Americans wait for the media to tell them what they should think. So, as the Democrats continue to hurt the lower class, the media will tell them things have never been better, and fairness has come to America. Stupid Americans will eat it up like candy.
I’m glad to see these crushing taxes. I want them to come fast and furious. That is the only chance of having even a small percentage of the American cattle begin to wonder about their savior. It will hurt me, but I’ll survive it. The people who will notice most who are lower middle class who are pushed into government dependency.
Isn’t a Northwestern State beta testing this? Washington, Oregon?
Cut back on electric usage, power co.s raise the rates. Cut back on water usage, they raise the rates.
IOW it’s a zero sum game. The companies/government want a certain income.
One way or the other they’ll get it.
If Zer0 wants to kill the economy, institute this tax.
In 2012 the Fed standard mileage rate (for IRS deductions)was 55.5 cents per mile. This year it’s going up to 56.5.
What will that deduction be if they get away with this?
who can’t do the stairs due to wheel chairs. I know. have folks to carry them to the top.
But, the disabled could be taxed on how many times their wheels on their wheelchair turned. Hey, they have to pay their fair share too./s
couldve sworn bambam said that anybody making less than 25K would never see a tax increase ???
his *opponents* are chompin at the bit for more slushies too...
“Isn’t that what Obama wanted? For people to use more “green” energy?”
I think what he really wants is for people to move in closer to urban centers—that will make it easier for him to round up the people and use them to work for the government in “camps”. Think China
I'd have any such device in my vehicle disabled right quick.
Supermarket is 2 blocks away. Gas station is 4 blocks away. Water Plant I work at is 6 blocks away. My 2001 Highlander has 50,000 miles on it. They’ll probably tax me for not driving enough!
I knew it was you before I even finished reading that line.
“Don’t pay any attention to what they say, watch what they do.”
I say pay very close attention to what they say and then assume that they will do the opposit of what they are stating are their objectives!
Agenda 21?
They make cars more gas efficient, people buy the cars, then get taxed for driving them. Brilliant!
Same here. I drive from job site to job site. most of my jobs are 15 minutes or less. So the bulk of my day is seat time in my own car. 4 years ago I traveled in a full size van with all the tools I needed. As pay went down, costs went up I was forced to park the van and start driving a 30 MPG car with just enough tools. I spend 15-20 minutes every morning going over the days jobs and loading the needed tools in the car.
Start taxing me by the mile to pay for some starbucks sipping liberal loosers bus? I’ll quit if I can’t raise my rates to cover it.
This is what we get with our KNEE-JERK reaction to increasing the gas tax...and not even letting it keep up with inflation.
I sure hope all you people are happy now - YOU’RE GETTING WHAT YOU DESERVE
If this involves a GPS unit in the vehicle, it will DESTROY the privacy of travel. We can be assured by “strong laws” but government always gives itself a pass somehow. The only way to protect the privacy of travel is to never allow government the means to violate our privacy in the first place.
This isn’t the 70’s, your privacy of travel has been long gone.
In every major city today there is at least one patrol car with high res cameras recording (and logging) every license plate of every car on the road, both coming and going.
Facial recognition software has been merged with all the drivers license photos, guess who deploys it and on whose orders.
There is also automatic pollution monitoring equipment that can analyze your exhaust and record the reading along with your license tag.
Use your credit card to buy gas, tracked.
Toll roads are now handled with transponders issued to the vehicle owner, they track when and how often the vehicle passes the receiver.
If your car (more than 1/2 the new cars sold in the last 2 years ) has GPS capability, addition of a $25 transponder turns it into a mileage tracking and auto recording system.
I am not kiddin, this stuff is out there now, and it is where we are heading.
This mileage tax will serve one purpose. Another opportunity for busybody bureaucrats to intrude in our everyday lives and more red tape. The current model of the gas tax based on per gallon is easy. Gas station sells a gallon, taxes are paid. And the driver just pays the tax at the pump and he is done. No paperwork, no reporting requirements, just drive.
One thing, this is done with truckers already with the fuel tax. And truckers are burdened with a lot of rules and regulations. The CDL which is intrusive enough where even a parking ticket can affect your driving privileges. And then there is the paperwork that has to be done for each state traveled through like for fuel taxes. Even if you fill up in State A with very little taxes but then drive mostly in State B, you will have to pay fuel taxes to State B for the portion driven there.
Kind of funny, back in the late 1980’s, I live in far Southern Indiana and Kentucky had very cheap gasoline taxes compared to Indiana and I would drive to the Kentucky side to fill up. It was like 20 cents difference at the time.
Oh, they're quite sane... just diabolical. States like Virginia that thrive on out-of-state tourists will suffer greatly, while democrat-run, urban, rotting hellholes will all benefit from it.
FUBO!
something I heard Beck mention one day when I was channel surfing. One of Bh0’s buddies has published a book about the need to force people back into central cities. One way will be to pass state laws and or to get big cities to annex more and more suburbs, and then raise taxes on those folks, so it is cheaper to move into empty apartment buildings in the cities. And it is also justified as a “Green” initiative.
What Obama has in mind is mandating all vehicles be equipped with GPS and sensors so that a tax can be leveled not only on miles driven, but also speed and the type of vehicle with “gas guzzlers” being taxed more. As an added bonus Big Brother would also be able to track our every movement in case we might go to some clandestine gun show or TEA party meeting.
forget “replace”. Think “in addition to”
And it's no wonder why we have no money to maintain our infrastructure. We already pay taxes 10+ ways that are supposed to go for infrastructure, but that money gets diverted, and nothing is left.
This is a prime example of the old adage, "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics."
Whenever gas prices have risen, people have found ways to stop driving as much —carpooling, preplanning errand trips, walking more, etc. This will just spawn a black market of neighborhood jitney services and co-op grocery shopping.
Recipients of Obamaphones get free minutes. Will those same people get free Obamamiles?
It's reminding me of the Highland Clearances, during which small farmers in Scotland were burned out of their villages, their swords confiscated, and forced either to Glasgow or Edinburgh to chattel work in factories and living in tenements, or to flee to Canada, America and Australia.
It was our gain; but now with Kelo-inspired and environmentalist land confiscation and the present admin's threatened gun confiscation, such possibilities are looming again.
Satan hates freedom.
Urban planner types have been on the warpath against cars and suburbs and messy, people-enabling freedom since at least the 60's. That's when I picked up an architecture or urban planning magazine and was surprised by the undercurrent of hostility toward mobility and freedom and suburbs. They HATES it .....
Portland, Oregon, is the test case. The key is city-county government that allows the city crowd -- the "downtown boys" as Paul Newman called them in The Verdict (Newman, Jack Warden, Charlotte Rampling, James Mason) to forbid people building permits out in the suburbs. Portland is a totalitarian microcosm. Pen people up in the city, then milk them like cows. Shades (as long as I'm comparing things to movies) of The Matrix.
We shouldn't be surprised. All this stuff goes back to LeCorbusier and the Bauhaus School. They were socialist as hell. Le Corbusier himself was the guilty party who thought up the idea of "the projects", vast tenements for housing the Proletariat -- iirc his basic tenement squat was a rat-cage of about 500 or 600 square feet. San Francisco architects are cutting up apartment buildings right now into 200- and 400-sq. ft. squats that they propose to rent for $1500-2000/month. Ain't crony capitalism grand? Of course, a little bit of muscle has to be applied, to convince the victims to give up their suburban greenery for the more austere pleasures of High Totalitarian Socialism.
He kills another business,taxi anyone.
What some do not realize is that the only way to change this current path is to
fire and replace every elite in Washington. Boehner holds the beltstrap in the house
and threatens every new Critter to do as he demands. This has gone way to far for to long.
Voting is the only way to stop the progression of facism/socialism in our country.
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