Thursday, May 5, 2011

Jeenyus!

Pardon me, but I find this a bit confusing. The “Obama administration floats a draft plan to tax cars by the mile”, but, according to a White House spokeswoman, “This is not an administration proposal”???

Regardless of who proposed this idiotic idea, it is ominous in what it reveals about the Democrats’ view of taxation in general (more, always more). And this really bothers me:
News of the draft follows a March Congressional Budget Office report that supported the idea of taxing drivers based on miles driven.

Among other things, CBO suggested that a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax could be tracked by installing electronic equipment on each car to determine how many miles were driven; payment could take place electronically at filling stations.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a little problem with the government putting a tracking device in my car, even if it’s just a kind of high-tech odometer. I’ve got a problem with creating a new bureaucracy, too:
Obama's proposal seems to follow up on that idea in section 2218 of the draft bill. That section would create, within the Federal Highway Administration, a Surface Transportation Revenue Alternatives Office. It would be tasked with creating a "study framework that defines the functionality of a mileage-based user fee system and other systems."
Save yourself the trouble, Obamanauts. I’ve created my own, privately-funded bureaucracy – consisting of me – and according to my “study framework”, I have concluded that the future “functionality” of any politician fool enough to try to turn this thing into the law of the land is hovering between “zero” and “none”.

4 comments:

JeffS said...

This would lead to an inevitable blackmarket in bootleg gasoline.

And I wouldn't bet against some way of spoofing the tracking gear, even if it was GPS based. What some government wonk thinks up, somewhere there's a geek rubbing his or her hands in glee over a new challenge.

As to “This is not an administration proposal”.....as per the update, that's unlikely.

RebeccaH said...

For sure, this would be one area where ordinary people would be paying juvenile hackers in droves to jimmy their "mileage trackers".

Not only does this administration invite lawlessness, it invites sheer contempt for its stupidity.

Anonymous said...

WH Spokewoman Jennifer Psaki's statement is reminescent of the dialogue in the courtroom in "Legally Blonde". She says it isn't a administration proposal, but it's a working draft of a proposal, so it's a..... C'mon Jen, admit that it's another stupid proposal that's being worked on by this administration.

Wonder how the Left would take this, given their outrage over wiretaps?

I can see all types of businesses spring from this, since there are ways to beat the smog test.

Deborah Leigh

bruce said...

Forcing Americans onto public transport. Eurofication proceeds apace.