Friday, March 25, 2011

CBO: Taxing mileage a 'practical option' for revenue enhancement - The Hill's Floor Action

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/151765-cbo-says-taxing-drivers-based-on-miles-driven-a-real-option-for-raising-revenues?sms_ss=blogger&at_xt=4d8caac6dc0db2cc%2C0
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soule: What the F**K??? If I wasn't on my meds, I'd really be flyin off the handle. If you want to get a good look at government "nannyism" and the jerks who are in control of our lives, I suggest you read this article. Let's get this out in the open, okay? I'm friggin tired of playing footsy. We have a huge welfare class in this country, black, whites and others, who are coddled, babied, and spoon-fed by the government. Lazy and too entitled to get off their fat asses and find a job, they continue to grovel at the government's pig sty. And the rest of us continue to pay for this with our taxes. Im all for helpin people but this situation is way out of control and government doesn't want to do anything about this because it's a huge voting block. Well, guess what, I'm sick and tired of the real folks working their butts off, having it rammed to them continually in the form of more regs and higher taxes and the rest of the bunch getting passed over. We don't have any more damned money. We have other "entitlements" that are on the brink of insolvency or out of money entirely yet this government ignores this pressing problem and continues to spend us into oblivion. Can the government get a grip and just stop spending? The thinking that more taxes is the answer is not the answer. Just some liberal utopian feel-good, lazy, quick fix for them screwing things up in the first place. Taxing us even more is going to throw another roadblock in the way of job creation, stifle entrepreneurship and just continue to fill government coffers with more of our hard earned money so they can all blow it again. You guys in office need your heads examined. And while we're on the subject, your wallets need to be examined, also. All of You who represent We The People could set a very good example that you mean business in decreasing our trillions of dollars in debt starting by freezing those automatic pay raises you vote yourselves every year. Yeah, you're for the people alright. We have a "working class" in this country and may I differentiate between a working class and the producers of this country? There is a big difference. Workers can be state, federal, municipal. There might be some others I forgot to mention. They get up and go to work and then come home. But do they actually produce anything? We then have the producers of this country, whom I believe to be members of the real working class. The farmers, the ranchers, dairymen, manufacturers, oilmen, fishermen, etc., who continue to produce "some" thing tangible for us...food to eat and products to wear or use. But they are dwindling in numbers and either quitting their profession or leaving for greener pastures...many of them, overseas. Alot of those decisions have to do with a decreasing profit margin as big government continues to raise our taxes, environmental regulations and unions. Let's talk prices. Right now the price of nitrogen fertilizer is over $400/T for the farmer, rancher. I just heard recently that that figure might even be on the low side...and more like $600.00/T. Three years ago it was $180/T. Back in October of last year a Ton of dairy commodities (stuff you feed cows like corn, wheat mids, soybean meal) was approx. $190.00/T. Right now it's $250/T for the same mix, possibly higher. The rest of the working people on this planet have to put up with seeing 65% of their meager "pay" go for food and fuel. Grain products have sky-rocketed because of more demand from countries in Asia and elsewhere. If our government taxes us even more, doesn't it stand to reason that the price of the food and products we buy will be higher, for everyone? Yeah the big guys with the millions of money pouring into their bank accounts can take these higher costs on the chin. But they will still be passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher food and fuel prices. What will happen to the budgets of the rural folks who have to drive long distances to work if they are slapped with a mileage tax? What if they have to travel a long way to shop or visit a Dr. or go grocery shopping? What about just visiting for the sake of visiting? What about the small livestock producers (and this country has thousands of them) the ranchers and farmers who have a 50, 100 or more head of livestock, the fishermen, the manufacturers, etc? Are they not just as important as the big guy? They contribute to the food supply and production of goods in this country. What about the price of commodities and hay and fertilizer and fuel they use? Does anyone give one crap about them? What if they have to travel a long distance to fuel up their trucks, tractors and other equipment? And we have the Congressional Budget Office and Senator Kent Konrad from North Dakota who are considering taxing us even more for using the highways that we are already being taxed for? We're not out of control...the government is. The few people that are willing to put up with this or can even afford this will still hang in there but for how long? The rest will just give up. And those that give up will undoubtedly end up in the unemployment line and very likely on welfare. The little guy is scratchin his head, totaling up the numbers and they just don't add up. And the President of the United States just gave Brazil billions of our tax dollars to drill there but we can't drill here? And what about refineries? You can drill all you want but if you don't have the mechanism to refine the crude, then what? Mr. Obama is not the only one to blame for where this country is, right now. For approximately 40 years this country's leaders have ignored and dilly dallied about creating an energy policy and because of their negligence, I believe we are now facing a very big problem. And, I believe that these high gas prices aren't going away but are here to stay. This CBO article points to the fact that this country is heavily dependent on foreign oil and that by taxing our mileage (and the government wants to install some type of device to ensure they know just how many miles we do travel) it will add additional revenue to maintain our roads.

This is nuts.
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this p.s. is a little behind this post but if for more information on where this country now stands in job creation, please take a moment to read the April 1st Wall Street Journal article, "We've Become a Nation of Takers Not Makers", by Steven Moore.

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