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So far this is just another of Bammie's whiny little pipe dreams. It would take congressional approval to implement this disaster, er tax. And I don't think congress is QUITE that stupid. Though after the last spending bill, I'm not positive of that either.
What, other than where the money goes, is the difference between a $10 tax and an additional $10 profit for a private company. If I have to pay more I would prefer the tax because it will be used for needed infrastructure improvements. $10 for oil company profits will be wasted on bizjets and executive bonuses.
But if that extra 10 bucks in tax gets added, the companies are still going to take their profits and when the cost per barrel goes up, the tax is still going to be on it.
As to the OP, my small business is going to be hurt as I'll have to add a surcharge for any jobs outside of my direct area and sometimes (whether the client sees it as a separate surcharge or just an increase in my price quote) the client just doesn't want to pay the extra.
Then there is my other line of work, which I want to get back into this year. Offshore sportfishing and charter fishing! That business takes a huge hit with an increase in fuel costs. Obviously. It gets attacked from all ends as well. Many would no longer be able to afford the drive down to the coast. Of those that can, they get hurt when the prices of everything goes up. Then of the very few that still have a few bucks left to go fishing, many can't because the price to charter a boat has gone up substantially due to the increase in fuel costs! Lose lose, situation all around.
Think again. According to Gerald Ford, who did the same thing in 1975, it's within Presidential authority:
This is from Ford's 1975 State of the Union Address:
You can assign whatever sinister motives you want. The reality is that this is something the President can do within his own authority. Raising the gas tax needs Congressional approval, which this Congress won't do.
One big difference then, the fee was on imported oil to encourage domestic production. One reason oil prices have dropped is that we've ramped up domestic sources (fracking, among other technologies or processes) and are importing very little oil now.
Through any of the ports with immigration offices at the time: Baltimore, Boston, New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia. Anyone immigrating at the time was questioned by an official and had to meet the criteria.
So then you agree that birth rates and immigration rates aren't static? For the 4th time.
Then you would agree roads are not subsidized but instead are helping to subsidize other things. Without roads that massive amount of tax revenue would not exist.
I'll rephrase, we subsidize automobile use instead of letting the free market decide land use patterns.
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Yet this is exactly what you are advocating for.
Nope. I don't care how we fund it, the issues is taxes aren't high enough to cover our expenses for everything. We let all the funds generated by roads go to roads and then pensions become more underfunded, education funding drops, etc.
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Here's an idea, lets jack the fares up on mass transit and we can use that to subsidize the roads, just think of all the wonderful roads we could have. This is the same lame argument you are making.
It really isn't. You don't understand why roads and automobiles have become so ubiquitous.
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Which is more than paid for by the revenue generated.
Today it isn't. Maybe a decade or two ago, but today the ~20 billion a year would barely keep up with growth.
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They are not funded equally because mass transit cannot even pay for itself let alone subsidize something else.
You are seriously missing the point. We legislated roads and sprawl over 50 years ago while neglecting mass transit. It was certainly the culture of the time; white flight and the post war boom (GI Bill) that saw the building a large scale single family subdivisions.
How is mass transit supposed to compete with roads having such a large head start in terms of funds and time? Would you be okay legislating higher density much like most of America has legislated lower density?
I'll ask again, are you okay with setting up a separate fund for mass transit paid in part by your income taxes?
TSecondly it won't be counted as revenue generated from vehicles so people like dv1033 can naively go on saying roads are subsidized.
Some people understand the history of this country and why things are the way they are. Trust me, I would love to fund roads, highways, new/repaired bridges, and mass transit.
I think the main issue is that you are against mass transit and don't view it as worthwhile. Again, you need to understand why roads and automobiles became some entrenched over a century.
Think again. According to Gerald Ford, who did the same thing in 1975, it's within Presidential authority:
This is from Ford's 1975 State of the Union Address:
You can assign whatever sinister motives you want. The reality is that this is something the President can do within his own authority. Raising the gas tax needs Congressional approval, which this Congress won't do.
Give credit to Obama for educating us on what a president can do on his own. On what authority can he levy a surcharge on a privately produced commodity? Are we at war or something?
The primary beneficiary of raiding the Highway Trust fund has been mass transit, note that is Highway trust fund. You are arguing two sides of the same coin. It's bit hypocritical to complain about transportation funding being raided and then advocate for raiding highway funds for mass transit.
The Highway Fund is just one means of funding infrastructure as states and municipalities also have to fund local projects.
I don't care about the name of the fund, I care about funding the things we need. Our infrastructure across the board has been woefully underfunded because we can't raise taxes.
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