Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said he wanted to consider the idea of taxing Americans based on how many miles they drove. Transportation spokesperson Lori Irving said the secretary was only speaking of a possible idea.
Congress is being urged to start programs to tax per mile. Some states are beginning to talk about the idea as well. A N. Carolina Panel suggested taxing drivers a quarter-cent per mile driven, with the possibility of tracking mileage via a GPS tracking device.
Next week a panel is expected to release a report recommending such a system. It would require all vehicles be equipped with a GPS tracking device that would upload mileage. President Obama has already stated he is not in support of the idea.
I mean Im already taxed out the ass and now they wanted even more blood. This really would be totally unfair for those of us that live in the suburbs. This is really encouraging city dwelling as well as hurting only select cities. Ex: Atlanta drivers drive more than any other driver on avg. in the US. This is because ATL is such a widely spread out city that our regular commutes are anywhere from 45 min to 2+ hours...
I see this as nothing more than another attempt by the fascist elites to steal the money that I worked hard to earn!
I wonder what they would spend it on? Oh wait that was a stupid question. They would just give it to their fat cat friends on Wall Street just like the other 9.7 TRILLION!!!
If the intention is to tax for each mile, we already do this by taxing gas, which gets used, per mile.
Taxking gas is even more fair because, inefficient cars, cost more, which is something GPS can never catch.
This idea will cost a huge overhead on top of the blatant invasion of privacy. Later the GPS can be used to determine max speed at certain intersections, etc..
Kudos for correctly using the unicode symbol for ΒΌ. I'm a huge fan of unicode symbols, using them whenever I can. 10 bonus points, and a snowman for you! ?
aww, well, seems the snowman doesn't render here (damn you incomplete unicode support!). Here he is http://unicodesnowmanforyou.com/... (note that he's a copy-pasteable character :P)
nothing short of a double tax on the American people. When fuel originally went up, so did the price for everything else that is transported, but did I get a wage increase? No... So now that the fuel prices are down and the cost of certain items are still up, do I get any relief? NO, my government thinks of new ways to tax what little money I earn! How nice! And just in time for my birthday too!
When I can't afford to download porn because of the new taxes proposed on downloading ANYTHING, I go to the strip club. Now they've foiled my back up plan by charging to me drive there!
I shit you not... If this insanity where to become reality I would toss my 07 rabbit into a lake, and go live in the woods. I have my guns, know how to use them and can fish to boot. What are these people thinking? DUDE I drive from home to work and so on so forth, occasional trip to do groceries and still average out 16-19k miles a year...
I also love it when they tell u the regular American drives 12k miles a year...
Whatever these people are smoking is well... of high quality. I dont even wanna get started on GPS tracking devices... You are insane... Good luck with getting one on my vehicle. Now THAT is a sign of communism... scary shit...
They thought about doing this in the UK too, both countries have similarly expensive wars to fund, it doesn't grow on trees you know :-P
Sadly I think the developed world has peaked. We went from peasants on the land working for nothing with an oppressive ruling elite, to free people progressing themselves in a free market economy. Now we're going back again, the ruling elite taking every spare penny / cent and the people having nothing. I'm always amazed at how stuff seems to go in circles.
I recommend the government give postal carriers the authority to come onto your property and unlock your vehicle, using a master key, and check your odometer once per week. That way they can also detect any mileage count that has been illegally rolled back. $500.00 fine for each mile not properly reported. One year jail sentence for second offense and no time off for good behavior.
While they are at it, why not tax the distance children cover when riding their bicycles? And tax those darned baseball cards they use to make noise!
I also recommend a Sex Tax. You pay for each sex act you engage in. I'm not sure how the government will verify this one. I think the people not getting any will lie about it and pay just to make themselves look good and the people getting a lot will also lie to avoid paying so much tax.
I really think they're just trying to give people incentives to drive less, which would help reduce pollution. That seems a more plausible scenario than the "elite fascist picking the public pocket for their Wall Street fat-cat friends" scenario you put forward.
Personally, I like positive incentives rather than negative ones, so I'd leave taxes alone but introduce a tax cut of some sort to encourage people to drive less.
I live in ATL. Basically a survey a couple years back showed that ATL drivers had the longest commute times on average in the entire US. Now this was back in 06 or 05. Anyhow those statistics shouldn't be very different today.
Anyhow with that said, I will explain why I and millions more like me, have to drive so far.
Atlanta, has a public transit system called MARTA. Similar to BART or other metro rail and bus systems. It has both a light rail and also bus service throughout the metro area. Here is the problem:
Several counties have written legislation that bans MARTA from expanding into those regions. Many of these bans are 10+ year bans that were only done a few years back. In other words, it is impossible to use public transportation within these counties simply because it doesnt and wont exists. If it does eventually become available, it will be at least 5 more years.
I would love to use MARTA if it was possible. I really would! It is much cheaper to take the train than to pay for parking in the city. But like I said, since it is illegal for MARTA to even to expand into these needed area's, people are going to be forced to drive long commutes of up to 2+ hours...
I am sure Atlanta is not the only case like this in the country too.
