When are the masses going to stand up to this crap? When are we going to get sick of this crap? Enough is enough! Do something about it!


http://apnews.myway.com//article/200...D95FCS2G0.html

 

Now that is just ridiculous.

 

Any time I hear open minded, I get a little queasy...Some one is about to shove something down my throat.

 

Read about that in another thread. That is completely pathetic. Another way for the man to hold us down.

BTW that crapola will never fly in Texas.

 

I agree---it is really Big Brother watching you, as well.

but I do pose a question---with our roads and infrastructures rapidly deteriorating, and with the advocation for us to drive fewer miles (which obviously, many of us have), and with the gas tax as the primary method of funding road repair---

What changes would you gents make so that the bridges and roads can be maintained? Granted, this wreaks of the novel, 1984; but isn't this also a case of, "Be careful what you wish for; you might just get it."? Americans have actually curbed their mileage, so now the tax revenues have dropped---you would have though that the gov't. would have foreseen that---so guys,

What the F do we do now.. I don't like this mileage tax either--do we raise taxes on gasoline; do we raise plate fees; how do we raise the moolah to maintain our roadways?

TSC

 

Washington needs to trim the fat before saying taxes need to be raised for anything. We all know this.

 

Very true. While I have not driven on roads in Texas, I can tell you that the roads in the Midwest get ravaged by winter...the water, the salt, etc---the joke up here is that there are two seasons: winter and construction. The Ohio Dept. of Transportation did a survey on many of our bridges, and some are in serious danger---one downtown Cleveland has had to be relieved of all the bus and truck traffic. (It was built the same way the one in Minnesota was built.) Having driven all over the Midwest to ref, I can attest to the problem in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York.

The problem remains, though; drivers are using less gas---and for decades that is how we funded road maintenance. In this regard, how, and where, do we recoup the lost revenue to rebuild and to maintain our roads and bridges?

So, where do we cut the fat? I know that roads are like, "If you want to play, you have to pay..."


TSC

 

Every bill that is passed by congress contains earmark pork. That's the first on the block. End earmark spending.

End the War in the sandbox, eventually. That will save tons of money.

Allocate some money that would be spent elsewhere (earmarks and war) towards roads and infrastructure.

The roads here are OK in some areas, not in others.

Putting MORE tax on gas or creating one on driving distance will only make people drive even less or quit driving all together, generating even less revenue.

 

Road construction? There has got to be 700 billion laying around somewhere.

 

That's not socialism. That's just the cost of saving the planet.
If the idea ctaches on I wonder if they'll make the Amish pay mileage taxes on their horses?

I can imagine what the next idea will be. Sooner or later they'll adopt the same permit type strategy they use for truckers. An IFTA sticker to cover you for driving through different states and logging your mileage through each state and paying taxes accordingly.

 

The definition of liberalism: Someone so open minded that their brain fell out.

 

I am posting this link for info only.
Be aware, however that this Organization was able to ID no more than $18.3 Billion in earmarks and they are very good at it.

While that is a mind boggling amount of money, it pales in comparison to the amount of money involved in these projects you are talking about in the thread.

What worries me more than earmarks is the possibility of massive corruption, collusion, bid rigging, whatever you wish to call it.

I am not sure if it was folks in the Obama organization or some other watchdog outfit but I have read that there is a movement on to take the oversight for these infrastructure projects away from Congress and to appoint a sort of professional, independent, Infrastructure Czar along with a sufficiently large professional staff to make decisions on where the money is to be spent. Makes some sense to me.

Regarding the mileage tax, I too thought of the system used for OTR truckers and a slight modification of that might work if that is the way it is going to go.

Rather like your annual emissions test, you could have your odometer scanned at the emissions place, or have it read from your car's computer.
Just making it up, but perhaps then you would get an invoice from your state or the feds for XXX$ to be paid in 12 installments over the following year or something like that.

In any case, I think we all need to be aware that one way or another we are going to have to spend that Trillion or so, starting now. Even in a temperate state like GA, we have major issues with bad roads/bridges etc. not even to mention the need for more or better designed highways to try to clear out some of our congestion points in metro areas. Atlanta, especially.

Enjoy the pasted article, there are some very interesting projects in there.
Bill

http://php.app.com/earmarks/

 

Yeah, Earmarks aren't the problem. It's an issue thrown out there to take to focus off the REAL spending problems this government has...

Heck, the Majority of these Earmarks were probably for GOOD causes like bridge repairs, community centers, etc.

Now Iraq... There's some spending! We'll be out soon though.

 

Something interesting about plate fees, is how they vary from state to state.
For instance in Arkansas the average fee is base on weight of the auto.
The average family car or pick up here is about $25.
I know it is a lot higher in other states

 

this is about half way to becoming a reality in my home province of Ontario.

when you go to get your license plates renewed, drivers license renewed, new stickers for your plates, anything, you have to write down your mileage. the concept of taxing people per KILOMETER has already been brought up, but turned down, a lot of people flipped out at just the concept.