WASHINGTON (AP) — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says he wants to consider taxing motorists based on how many miles they drive rather than how much gasoline they burn — an idea that has angered drivers in some states where it has been proposed....
....A tentative plan in Massachusetts to use GPS chips in vehicles to charge motorists by the mile has drawn complaints from drivers who say it's an Orwellian intrusion by government into the lives of citizens. Other motorists say it eliminates an incentive to drive more fuel-efficient cars since gas guzzlers will be taxed at the same rate as fuel sippers.
2009-02-20T07:19:44Z
Somebody chimes in.... "Where in this arcticle does it say that Obama himself supports this plan?"
Do you honestly believe Obama's Secretary of Transportation would float this trial balloon if it didn't have the administration's backing? Do you believe Cabinet Secretaries just freelance?
2009-02-20T07:27:48Z
I just love the "public transportation, walk, bike" suggestions. As if we all live in the projects 8 blocks from work.
Pull out of map of the United States sometime.
No Shortage2009-02-22T17:56:46Z
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I drive about 28,000 miles a year for work. It isn't optional. If Obama taxes me, I will have to pass the cost on to clients, which is exactly what other small business owners will do. This will be a disaster if implemented, like everything else Obama has come up with so far, and the best thing about it is that I am becoming more and more confident that he is going to be a one-term messiah.
For the record, we do not have projects in Detroit or the metro area anymore. They were torn down several years ago. We don't have public transportation because the auto industry used to be here. You cannot even hail a cab in Detroit. You have to call and schedule one. There is a bus system, but it is unreliable. You cannot walk or bike to work in Detroit because it's unsafe and not practical or even possible during the winter. We were going to build a public transit center that went throughout the tri-county area, but that had to be scrapped because we don't have any money.
None of this matters, though, because no one has a job anymore. GM announced it is considering moving its headquarters to Charlotte, NC. It is being said that Chrysler is not even worth saving. We don't need cars, houses or jobs in Detroit. We need mental institutions, drug rehab centers and homeless shelters because people are losing their homes and their minds at an alarming rate. Yesterday morning we awoke to find a neighborhood woman who has fallen on difficult times nearly frozen to death on our front lawn. It was 12 degrees here, and who knows how much time she had left. If people think this is an anomaly, I invite them to please come visit for a week or so. Waking up to find this dear woman nearly dead on my lawn is something that will never leave me. Our state is devastated, and it's devastating our citizens.
The auto companies can make cars as fuel efficient as they want to, but the sad fact is that there will be no one who can buy one anyway. If taxes get too high, many people who do work will quit working, just like mothers who find that it's cheaper to stay home with their kids than it is to pay for daycare. Last summer my husband asked me if I wanted to quit working and stay home to raise children, and I laughed. I'm not laughing now. Why should I work if Obama is going to take away my living and my ability to help provide for our financial future, which is what I work for anyway?
It's too late to urge people not to vote for Obama, so all I can do is urge people to pay attention to what their lawmakers are doing and speak up for what is right, ignoring the media and their agenda.
Sorry for the long answer. Watching our state fall apart gets to me sometimes, and today is one of those times.
I have a small ranch in southern NM where I drive approximately 20000 miles per year with out ever being on a public road. They want to tax those miles! When pigs sing and fly. The bastards get in my back pocket way to much as it is and do nothing to stop the illegal alien invasion that is destroying my range land and out buildings.
Hell no the Cabinet does not free lance. They float the trial balloons so the President catches less flack if the public hates an idea. Where do some of the people get an education? Off the back of cereal boxes?
Lord God above us Please watch out for the people of the USA! It is going to be a long 4 years.
Yeah ... and soon they will control where you can go in your car, how long each day you are permitted to operate your vehicle, your exact location while you are in your vehicle, all sorts of interesting data which the government has NO business recording.
And do you think that just because LaHood says he wants to tax motorists on how many miles they drive instead of how much gasoline they burn, that the gas tax is going to go away or NOT be increased eventually? HA!
This is just another aspect of the "change" that OBIMBO is wreaking on our country. Are all you OBIMBOMANICS happy with the direction that his "changes" are taking? Do you still have "hope" that he will be able to ease your imagined sufferings? Your "victim" status?
Quit drinking the kool-aid and get your heads out of your rectums and watch your money become worthless as our economy tanks!! All brought about NOT by George Bush, but beginning way back in the days of "Peanuts" Carter and magnified through the years by the Dimmocrat leadership.
I don't think this is a good idea for thee reasons. One, truckers who transport our good have to go long distances and the added cost would break them. They are already not doing very well with the increase in the cost of gas. They would most likely pass the cost on the the consumer who would buy less, thus furthering the economic crisis. Second, it would not reward people who are buying alternative energy cars. Third, I don't think it should be legal for government to put anything in anyone's property. People should have full legal rights to the things that they own. Next they would be tracking people. I don't believe in property taxes either, which harms the peoples right to life and liberty.