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Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
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Originally Posted by Dbones
Leftists should be all giddy over this. They do this in every state that they run saying it will go to infrastructure and it never does.
Oh? I'm sure you can supply something factual regaling us with Rightists completely overhauling the infrastructure in states they run as examples of how it should be done, right?
Trumps plan gives developers and Wall Street investors tax credits to fix our infrastructure. And for every $1 developers put into a project they will receive .82 cents of taxpayer money.
As I recall the credit would be for money sitting off shore because of excessive US taxes and will collect $0 without some incentive.
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And after the developers and Wall Street investors fix our roads and bridges, these groups will then own the bridges and roads (then they will charge us tolls to use the roads and bridges.)
The Pennsylvania Turnpike currently tolls about twice the rate used to maintain the turnpike, the other half is funneled to other state roads. On top of that you are paying both a federal and sate fuel tax none of which goes to the turnpike, you are effectively charged 3 times to use that road.
As I recall the credit would be for money sitting off shore because of excessive US taxes and will collect $0 without some incentive.
How does Trumps infrastructure plan bring money in other countries back to America?
Quote:
The Pennsylvania Turnpike currently tolls about twice the rate used to maintain the turnpike, the other half is funneled to other state roads. On top of that you are paying both a federal and sate fuel tax none of which goes to the turnpike, you are effectively charged 3 times to use that road.
Oh? I'm sure you can supply something factual regaling us with Rightists completely overhauling the infrastructure in states they run as examples of how it should be done, right?
What I would propose is a per mile tax based on the weight of the vehicle calculated for the cost to build and maintain roads. Thus everyone pays fairly for the roads based on what it costs to maintain them for them. This would also be applied to the trucking industry which pays no where near what they should be paying. Increasing the tax on them would force long haul freight onto rail where it belongs reducing the damage to roads caused by trucking substantially. This would necessarily cause the cost of goods to rise and those costs would be fairly distributed to every consumer in the country. Because of the reduced damage and the costs being fairly distributed the motoring public will see reductions in the cost to use roads.
Every penny of this would go to roads and bridges with some exceptions where including other projects simply makes sense. I'd eliminate the federal mass transit fund paid for with fuel taxes and in my state the state fuel taxes being siphoned off for mass transit would also be eliminated. I'd also eliminate the exemptions public transit gets for using the roads such as not paying the fuel tax. Licensing, registration and other fees would be reduced to cover expenses. Sales tax on vehicles would be eliminated and to be fair if there is sales tax on fares for public transportation we will eliminate that also. Any other fees/taxes associated with using cars such as public parking would be used to cover expenses.
This would squarely put the cost of maintaining and building roads on those that use them or benefit from them. Sound fair?
How does Trumps infrastructure plan bring money in other countries back to America?
There is hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars sitting offshore that was revenue generated by US companies in host countries and already taxed there at much lower than if it were generated here. If those companies want to bring that capital back into the US there is extraordinarily high tax rate to do so. They just leave it there or invest it there.
Those funds will never see US shores under the current tax laws.
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Under Trumps plan the toll money would be given to wealthy developers and Wall Street.
You can't give someone something that is already theirs.
I totally support this. Road construction and repair should be paid for entirely from gas and vehicle registration taxes. It should not be funded from the general budget.
Thnak you, President Trump!
The Trillion he just borrowed and gave to corporations so they could buy back their stock and pay less in corporate taxes would have bought a LOT of infrastructure.
We should definitely finance infrastructure. But stuff like this shows exactly why Trump is a checkers players.
To wit - the intelligent thing to do is NOT to roll back the MPG and pollution standards and other such things so that when the gas tax (and price) goes up higher, the average person will not see an increase (assuming over time most people eventually get a newer vehicle).
We also need better rail networks....so, yes, I'm in favor of paying for some massive infrastructure.
But I am 100% against the current plans. You see, in most places they consider it an improvement to widen road from 6 lanes to 10 lanes...because they need more and more lanes to handle the traffic. No matter what you do, this ends poorly because there is eventually somewhere where the traffic bottlenecks.....to say nothing of the amount of the country that is paved over, the massive development that follows, etc.
What we need to do is come up with better long term planning...which is the complete opposite of Trumps "hmm, how do I feel this morning?" or "What can I say today to keep ME in the news?"
We are competing against countries like China that have 100's of engineers and scientists in their government positions helping to make long term plans in energy, infrastructure and much more.
You can't win that war by dividing people and being the most unpopular POTUS in history. It just will not work...in Congress or in the Court of Public Opinion.
Now - if Trump had the capacity to do what is right and hold the center (after all, why should a solid minority of Americans be who he is working for?)....then he'd have his base (35% or so) and maybe another 20-25 from Independents and Dems. At 60% plus approval he could do things that most would agree with.
As it stands he's turned on his promises and claims so many times that it's best to just hope he gets impeached or indicted and then we can actually start with real plans that may be accomplished.
I'm tired of Big Words. You know, 3rd Grade Level words. My grand daughter was just here overnight and she definitely has a better vocab and sentence structure. She's eight years old.
It don’t matter if Trump proposed a dollar a gallon increase, his supporters will shriek with joy about paying more at the pump. Meanwhile Trump will continue to gut programs that help the poorest Americans while giving huge tax breaks to billionaires, and his poor white trash supporters will say “Thank you Mr President for all you have done for billionaires!”
You figure them out, I can’t.
I can't either.
It's like wearing a sign on one's backside that says "Kick Me". Trump could see that sign ...
There is hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars sitting offshore that was revenue generated by US companies in host countries and already taxed there at much lower than if it were generated here. If those companies want to bring that capital back into the US there is extraordinarily high tax rate to do so. They just leave it there or invest it there.
Those funds will never see US shores under the current tax laws.
You can't give someone something that is already theirs.
The drop in the corporate tax rate was supposed move capital back to the US but I don’t believe that is what you are speaking to. They repatriated money to the US under GW Bush under an amnesty program, guess where most of it went, stock buybacks and executive pay.
All for an increase in the gas tax, should have been done years ago.
As I recall the credit would be for money sitting off shore because of excessive US taxes and will collect $0 without some incentive.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike currently tolls about twice the rate used to maintain the turnpike, the other half is funneled to other state roads. On top of that you are paying both a federal and sate fuel tax none of which goes to the turnpike, you are effectively charged 3 times to use that road.
It is worse than you describe: About $450 million a year in PA Turnpike tolls are diverted to shore up underfunded Union pension plans at SEPTA (Philly) and PAT (Pittsburgh)
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