Gas tax takes money from local communities and uses it to fix potholes on the road to the bridge to nowhere. Central planning doesn’t work: it has brought the ridiculous, counter productive ethanol mandate.
Gas tax proponents should be compeltely honest with middle class America and say: “i know we are halfway to a recession. I know inflation is picking up, but the Washington wonks deem it a good thing that you pay more for gas”
It’s not a tax, it’s a user fee.
Since there are 250 million vehicles, one could access a modest tax to make up this year’s shortfall $10/car = $2.5 billion which covers the year.
Thomas Friedman would argue the tax saves lives by cutting imports which fund unfriendly oil cartels.
Others would say no tax is needed, this is deficit funded stimulus as exactly proscribed by Keynes, Krugman, and Karl ( 6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_vehicles_in_the_United_States
Obama is traumatized by the memory of Hillary and McCain’s call to cut the gas tax during 2008.
But who benefits from roads? Auto companies, they earned over $10 billion, Ford far and away leading the pack, which is nothing compared to Exxon Mobile with $46 billion.
“In 2013, the Corporation distributed $26 billion to shareholders through dividends and share purchases to reduce shares outstanding.” http://news.exxonmobil.com/press-release/exxon-mobil-corporation-announces-estimated-fourth-quarter-2013-results
Who owns the shares and gets the dividends and watches their stock increase in value from the buybacks. Mostly the 1%
A gas tax is certainly regressive, but is there another way? Any other mechanism would require (shiver) another layer of bureaucracy. Raise the tax, fix the roads and watch the economy grow. The regressive impact of a gas tax recedes as our income (equality) grows. We have a lot of empty dump trucks and idle shovels.
Proving gas tax hike proposals are purely political (and not “common sense” or “good for the economy” or “good for the environment) and all politics is local:
Not wanting new roads, Australian liberals (Greens + Labor) KILL Australia’s proposed gas tax hike.
Gas tax takes money from local communities and uses it to fix potholes on the road to the bridge to nowhere. Central planning doesn’t work: it has brought the ridiculous, counter productive ethanol mandate.
Gas tax proponents should be compeltely honest with middle class America and say: “i know we are halfway to a recession. I know inflation is picking up, but the Washington wonks deem it a good thing that you pay more for gas”
It’s not a tax, it’s a user fee.
Since there are 250 million vehicles, one could access a modest tax to make up this year’s shortfall $10/car = $2.5 billion which covers the year.
Thomas Friedman would argue the tax saves lives by cutting imports which fund unfriendly oil cartels.
Others would say no tax is needed, this is deficit funded stimulus as exactly proscribed by Keynes, Krugman, and Karl ( 6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_vehicles_in_the_United_States
Obama is traumatized by the memory of Hillary and McCain’s call to cut the gas tax during 2008.
But who benefits from roads? Auto companies, they earned over $10 billion, Ford far and away leading the pack, which is nothing compared to Exxon Mobile with $46 billion.
“In 2013, the Corporation distributed $26 billion to shareholders through dividends and share purchases to reduce shares outstanding.”
http://news.exxonmobil.com/press-release/exxon-mobil-corporation-announces-estimated-fourth-quarter-2013-results
Who owns the shares and gets the dividends and watches their stock increase in value from the buybacks. Mostly the 1%
assess a tax
not access
whoops
prescribe
not proscribe
is that me really typing?
A gas tax is certainly regressive, but is there another way? Any other mechanism would require (shiver) another layer of bureaucracy. Raise the tax, fix the roads and watch the economy grow. The regressive impact of a gas tax recedes as our income (equality) grows. We have a lot of empty dump trucks and idle shovels.
At the risk of seeming repetitive, Exxon Mobile earned $46 billion.
“In 2013, the Corporation distributed $26 billion to shareholders through dividends and share purchases to reduce shares outstanding.”
http://news.exxonmobil.com/press-release/exxon-mobil-corporation-announces-estimated-fourth-quarter-2013-results
BP is now nearing completion of its current $8 billon share buyback programme
http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/press/press-releases/bp-first-quarter-2014-results.html (not a U.S. company, but substantial U.S. operations)
Chevron … places a tertiary emphasis on reducing the share count by committing to buy back $5 billion worth of shares per year.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1100891-buybacks-dividends-and-growth-chevron-does-it-all
http://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/greens-side-with-labor-to-fight-fuel-tax-rise-which-abbott-government-hopes-will-raise-4-billion-over-four-years-for-roads/story-fn84fgcm-1226965031656
Proving gas tax hike proposals are purely political (and not “common sense” or “good for the economy” or “good for the environment) and all politics is local:
Not wanting new roads, Australian liberals (Greens + Labor) KILL Australia’s proposed gas tax hike.