Uncle Scam says "I want fitty"

With all the politicians preaching this "Wall St. vs Main St." bull E36 M3, federal gas taxes may go up 50%:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28467330/

I wonder many people they've laid off, and how much they've cut the budget by in an effort to save money...oh wait, it's the fed., they can just steal the money from you.

While we piss away money we'll never see a return on in Iraq. While we give away 750,000,000,000 dollars to banks who won't even loan it back to the people who paid them.

We have some seriously out of wack priorities in D.C.

They just can't believe that Americans are spending less on ANYTHING.

Its only another 10 cents a gallon for gas and 12 to 15 cents for diesel. If they spend it all on improving the highways, I'd gladly pay it.

Bob

Schmidlap wrote: Its only another 10 cents a gallon for gas and 12 to 15 cents for diesel. If they spend it all on improving the highways, I'd gladly pay it. Bob

yup..

would like more street signs and properly timed lights and ohh yeah...

BRIDGES THAT ARE SAFE.

Schmidlap wrote: Its only another 10 cents a gallon for gas and 12 to 15 cents for diesel. If they spend it all on improving the highways, I'd gladly pay it. Bob

A 50% increase sounds a whole lot worse than a 12 to 15 cent per gallon increase. See how the media does that?

Which begs the question...does the government need more revenue or should they focus on ways to cut costs and waste?

This could be a whole lot worse. Do you really want to report the number of miles you drive every year to the government, or worse yet let them track you by GPS?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090102/ap_on_re_us/mileage_tax

ignorant wrote:

Schmidlap wrote: Its only another 10 cents a gallon for gas and 12 to 15 cents for diesel. If they spend it all on improving the highways, I'd gladly pay it. Bob

yup.. would like more street signs and properly timed lights and ohh yeah... BRIDGES THAT ARE SAFE.

The real problem will be that it won't be spent on improving highways. The gu'bment has proven time and again that it LOVES to dip into trust funds for other reasons.

The gas tax in Colorado is a flat 22 cents per gallon - and it's fixed. So, when oil prices go up, so does the cost for asphalt to maintain the roads. But usage goes down, so there's less money to fix the roads. Add into that the fact that the tax level hasn't gone up in 18 years, and you can see a problem. The government is collecting the same (or less) amount of revenue, but can do less and less with it.

Snowdoggie wrote: This could be a whole lot worse. Do you really want to report the number of miles you drive every year to the government, or worse yet let them track you by GPS? http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090102/ap_on_re_us/mileage_tax

That sounds craptastic, big brother where are you, O how did you find me??

Question-all the roads here in Gville are at 95-105% capacity, how is it that when they were at 50% they were able to repair them with the gas taxes then, but not now? Twice as many cars is twice as many taxes right?

MGAMGB wrote:

MrJoshua wrote: how is it that ... they were able to repair them ... then, but not now?

A Frankfurter was ten cents and you could buy a Hersey for a nickel - a silver dollar costs you 20 bucks now. etc

This was less than 20 years ago in gville. A Hershey bar cost about the same now as it did then.

poopshovel wrote: ...oh wait, it's the fed., they can just steal the money from you.

No need to steal money, they can (literally) print, or pull out of their butt, as much as they want and of course have... a LOT.

Snowdoggie wrote: This could be a whole lot worse. Do you really want to report the number of miles you drive every year to the government, or worse yet let them track you by GPS? http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090102/ap_on_re_us/mileage_tax

How long til the hackers figure that one out?

Mental wrote:

Snowdoggie wrote: This could be a whole lot worse. Do you really want to report the number of miles you drive every year to the government, or worse yet let them track you by GPS? http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090102/ap_on_re_us/mileage_tax

How long til the hackers figure that one out?

About as long as it takes the government to figure out that you really can't drive on the top of the Pacific Ocean.

Xceler8x wrote: While we piss away money we'll never see a return on in Iraq. While we give away 750,000,000,000 dollars to banks who won't even loan it back to the people who paid them. We have some seriously out of wack priorities in D.C.

and yet god forbid american manufacturing gets a loan that will be paid back in order to prevent the colapse of an industry and the 3 million jobs that will go with it

Snowdoggie wrote:

Schmidlap wrote: Its only another 10 cents a gallon for gas and 12 to 15 cents for diesel. If they spend it all on improving the highways, I'd gladly pay it. Bob

A 50% increase sounds a whole lot worse than a 12 to 15 cent per gallon increase. See how the media does that?

$1.57 vs. $1.69 ZOMG!!!1!11 Apocalypse!!1! Barack Hussein Mubarak Quaddafi Obama!!!1!

Honestly, I'm all for this tax as long as the get rid of it when gas goes past a "reasonable" (let's say $2.50) price. It would be a painless, nearly-across-the-board, fair, effective way to get more money into the economy/budget.

There's no question the budget could use the extra coin. Empirically, gas is ridiculously cheap right now, so bumping it up 12-15 cents would literally be painless. Keep in mind, we never thought we'd see sub-3 dollar gas again. This tax would hurt NO ONE.

Between my wife and me, we're saving about $280/month in gas now compared to June. I can handle this little tax bump.

If the tax goes to transportation infrastructure, I'm all for it.

Seems like a very fair usage tax. If you're buying gas, it's safe to say that you're driving on roads. The more you buy, the harder you probably are on the roads. So you're paying to repair the wear you cause, and add infrastructure that you'll presumably use.

And I hardly blink at $0.20 fluctuations in gas prices.

Lets save some money by banning pedestrians and bicycles from our roads!

After all, they don't buy fuel so they don't pay fuel tax.

If they don't pay fuel tax, they shouldn't be using my road.

Shawn

Trans_Maro wrote: Lets save some money by banning pedestrians and bicycles from our roads! After all, they don't buy fuel so they don't pay fuel tax. If they don't pay fuel tax, they shouldn't be using my road. Shawn

You may be joking, but in case you aren't I have to throw my two cents in here.

I manage a bicycle shop and I have very few customers that don't also own cars. Those customers are folks that HAVE to ride a bike and CAN'T drive a car. So, that means that the majority of road cyclists own cars and pay taxes just like you and are entitled to use the road in whatever vehicle they choose.

Secondly, the first paved highway system was the direct result of cyclists lobbying for it, so to counter your argument that we should get off your road, perhaps you should get off ours lol

Exerpt from The League of American Wheelmen website:

How about taxing the Amish as well?

We have to make extra wide roads for'em and their steel rims eat 'em up.

In fact the more i think about it, No property taxes, no road use tax...

"Where's my black hat?"

gamby wrote:

Snowdoggie wrote:

Schmidlap wrote: Its only another 10 cents a gallon for gas and 12 to 15 cents for diesel. If they spend it all on improving the highways, I'd gladly pay it. Bob

A 50% increase sounds a whole lot worse than a 12 to 15 cent per gallon increase. See how the media does that?

$1.57 vs. $1.69 ZOMG!!!1!11 Apocalypse!!1! Barack Hussein Mubarak Quaddafi Obama!!!1!

Using the same numbers, even with 10% unemployment, 90% are still employed. Ford is still making 73% of the number of cars they made in 2007 and a 46% increase in forclosures still means 95% of the homeowners are still sending in their mortgage payments on time. Times are not good, but they are not that damned bad.

If you read the paper every day and watch CNN every night, it's easy to beleive that Detroit sold NO cars in 2008, that every house on your block but yours is in forclosure and that your job is the next one on the chopping block.

gamby wrote: There's no question the budget could use the extra coin.

Oh hell yes there is!

In reply to EastCoastMojo:

Yeh, the interwebs are so serious these days.

I ride a bike too.

Shawn