BICYCLE RIGHTS !!!
Posted on 03/03/2013 9:51:00 AM PST by DaveinOK54
WA Legislator: Cyclists increased respiration leads to air pollution" $25 Carbon TAX. Rep. Ed Orcutt thinks that "bicyclists are actually polluting when they ride" because, "the act of riding a bike results in greater emissions of carbon dioxide from the rider." A high-ranking Washington legislator has added insult to injury in his support for a bike tax by claiming that bicycling is not environmentally friendly because people who ride bikes pollute the air when they breathe. (snip)
Here's the entire text of Orcutt's email:
"I am not a fan of the House Transportation tax proposal, nor of many tax proposals, but I have to admit I think there are valid reasons to tax bicycles. Think about this for a moment: Currently motorists are paying to use their cars on the roads while they are actually driving their cars. At the same time they are paying for bike lanes because there is no gas tax — or any transportation tax — generated by the act of riding on the roadways. So, if cars pay for the roads they are using, it only makes sense that bicyclists would also be required to 'pay' for the roads they use when they are actually biking on them.
Also, you claim that is is environmentally friendly to ride a bike. But if I am not mistaken a cyclists [sic] has an increased heart rate and respiration. That means the act of riding a bike results in greater emissions of carbon dioxide from the rider. Since CO2 is deemed a greenhouse gas and a pollutant, bicyclists are actually polluting when they ride.
I know, you own a car and drive so you are paying gas tax — but not while you are riding your bike. When you are driving your car and generating gas tax you are also driving on the roads so are only really paying for the roads while driving — not while biking.
Sorry, but I do think that bicyclists need to start paying for the roads they ride on rather than make motorists pay.
Ed
See Post #6
BICYCLE RIGHTS !!!
I have always thought the fact that humor and sarcasm run rampant throughout FreeRepublic people would think before they comment. Fake outrage is not limited to the left.
I hope he’s just using sarcasm to prove a point.
From the dawn of time Politicians, Emperors, Dictators, Kings, Chieftains, Warlords, have wanted power, control and the ability to take everything that the people under their control possess.
Taxation is a favored tool. The saying is that have strived to tax everything but the are we breathe and they have succeded in that goal.
They now are moving on to the end game and actually are moving to tax the air we breathe
Respiration carries with it two products of metabolism, whether or not the human body is being exercised - carbon dioxide and water vapor. NEITHER ONE OF THESE COMPOUNDS ARE POLLUTION.
The very basis of life is the ready conversion of these two compounds into carbohydrates and free oxygen. There is, in fact, no possible situation where, in the presence of living plants, the carbon dioxide level could EVER rise high enough to render even minimal distress to animal life, and this includes human beings.
Without carbon dioxide, there would never have been any free oxygen in the atmosphere. Oxygen is the second most active element on the periodic table, and by far the most corrosive in nature. Only one element is more reactive than oxygen.
And that element is fluorine. There is just never any free fluorine, ever, for more than just a few minutes in the atmosphere, even after producing it by chemical means, because fluorine breaks down water on coming into contact, into hydrofluoric acid and nascent oxygen. Nobody has even ever SMELLED fluorine, as its effects are so deadly that it destroys the moisture in the tissues of sensory organs that detect odor. For that reason alone, perhaps there is no place in the Universe where the conversion of fluorine to fluorides could ever be the basis of life.
But oxygen can and does convert widely from oxide form to free oxygen, and is even relatively stable for a while as the oxygen gas. But in the absence of even minute amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, would soon mean there was no free oxygen, as it would be combining with just about every other element out there if there were no carbon available, and soon used up as a part of the atmosphere.
There is no escape from the simple fact - carbon dioxide is every bit as essential to our very survival as sunlight and water.
It is criminal to restrict the free production of carbon dioxide, and great harm would come in its absence.
Or as the Human Extinction Movement would say:
“Let’s NOT breathe”....and save the world !!
This is part of a proposed transportation tax package here in WA. The idea of a $25 license fee for bicycles that sell for more than $500 is to help pay for the building and maintenance of bike lanes, paths, trails, etc. that are funded by our gas tax. It’s about damn time they help pay their own way. Have you ever seen what The anarchists Critical Mass can do?
The law would also increase the current state fuel tax by an additional 10 cents per gallon on our already obscene 37.5 cent tax which has made us #9 in the U.S., as well as adding more to the cost of vehicle tabs and processing fees. Our legislature has never seen a gas tax increase they didn’t like.
So is this a one time sales tax on bikes > $500 or an annual tax?
In a just world, this statist piee of filth would have a plastic bag duct-taped over his head and thus be allowed to experience the “justice” he so craves.
I know Ed Orcutt personally and love that he is throwing this back in their faces.
Another way to put it, isn’t it time they “paid their fair share?” ;-)
For those who can’t see the sarcasm in Ed’s email;
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 20, 2013
CONTACT: Brendon Wold, Senior Information Officer – (360) 786-7698
Rep. Ed Orcutt – (360) 786-7812
House Republican transportation leader comments on House Democrat plan to make Washington state highest gas tax in the nation
‘We need to see how we can make our tax dollars go further, before we reach further into taxpayers’ pockets,’ says Orcutt
Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, and the ranking Republican on the House Transportation Committee, issued the following statement today regarding a House Democrat proposal to make Washington state’s gas tax the highest in the nation:
“With prior tax increases, our state built an off-ramp in the wrong place, a ferry that doesn’t work well in Puget Sound and faulty pontoons that may jeopardize the new 520 Bridge project.
“Now, House Democrats want to charge Washington drivers the highest gas tax in the nation at nearly 48-cents-per-gallon, more than doubling it since 2003. When you include federal taxes, Washington drivers would be paying 66 cents in state and federal taxes for every gallon of gas they purchase.
“In addition, we need to stop paying for construction projects over a 30-year period when the jobs they create usually only last for five or ten. We can’t continue down this road of failure and lack of accountability.
“House Republicans understand there are maintenance demands and new projects needed in the future. But any debate on transportation must begin with reforms, not tax increases on struggling workers and families, and not new project lists to entice votes in the Legislature.
“The reforms needed are not just transportation reforms, but economic reforms. The reality is people can’t afford more at the pump right now – especially those out of work or who have to commute long distances because their communities have been decimated by the economy and land-use restrictions.
“Before we even entertain the idea of a gas tax increase, we want to talk about transportation and economic reforms. We will talk more about these reforms next week. If the Democrats are willing to have this discussion, we are willing to work with them.
“We need to see how we can make our tax dollars go further, before we reach further into taxpayers’ pockets.”
For more information, visit our Web site at: www.houserepublicans.wa.gov.
The benefit would be that the government would have a little more control over you and get a little deeper in your pocket. The police would have another excuse to pull you over and check your papers - bike registration etc. For your own safety of course.
don’t forget farts. It can be hell not being the lead rider.
“If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I’ll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.”
Y’all thought the Beatles were joking.
zombies feasting on zombies. kind of a poetic justice change.
Taxes are no longer applied to raise revenue or cover costs fairly. Taxes are a form of punishment and retribution. Bicyclists are no more immune than anyone else.
Well it certainly would make the job of an IRS auditor mor interesting.
Do you know this or are you guessing this? Not that I’d be surprised, of course.
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