Questions On The Proposed Mileage Tax

The Obama administration has been tentatively floating the idea of a mileage tax.

Now, I think they’re actually not going to implement it any time soon, since the idea has gotten quite a negative reception – but I still have one question about some of the thought processes behind the tax: Why the heck is the first idea for charging per mileage to install tracking devices in every car, rather than simply reading the odometer every so often? Given the choice between an extremely expensive and immensely Orwellian implementation vs a cheap and fairly non-intrusive implementation, it’s fairly telling that the bureaucrats who floated this idea explicitly prefer to go completely Big Brother.

I would also like to point out that actually, a mileage tax isn’t such a bad idea – if I thought for one minute that the funds would stay isolated to our road system. The idea of raising an amount of money proportionate to the usage of roads is pretty much something that needs to be done to keep the road system maintained. Private companies can do an excellent job in this regard, but then people have to be willing to put up with tolls.

The Laffer Curve Is Proven Once Again

Researchers in England have shown that having a top earner income tax of 50% hurts the economy, and results in less income taken in by the government.

Oh, for reference, here in the U.S. we’ve got the most progressive income tax in the world. So don’t even think for a second that this doesn’t affect us. And government is once again running up a massive deficit it sure would be nice to see paid down.

How Do Federal Regulations And Bureaucracy Affect Everyday Americans?

See for yourself.

Our economic plight is entirely the fault of bad government, and could be immediately relieved by simply removing our excessive and counterproductive taxes and over-regulation.

The Big Companies Are Coming Back

But not the little companies. And excessive regulation and taxation is going to keep it that way for a while.

If we really want to do something for our economy, that would be the thing to change. Or we could continue to spend on Democrat special interests and have a second recession.

It’s Simple Math, But What’s Good For The Economy Has Nothing To Do With Democrat’s Fiscal Policy

Obama’s tax plan would increase progressivity and decrease economic growth. And our companies (such as Microsoft) would continue to move jobs offshore.

Just like with Universal Health Care, the Democrats’ position is all about increasing political control, regardless of the consequences that every ounce of evidence says would be bad. And with taxes, the reason so much of the population goes along with them is jealousy, pure and simple. Our tax code may not be the only political reason behind our economy’s dire state, but it’s definitely a major factor.

Surprise, Surprise…The Millionaires Go Elsewhere

At least in Maryland. You know, the U.S. has some of the highest corporate tax rates in the world, you wonder if there’s a similar effect with businesses?

How To Pay For Universal Health Care?

By taxing soda and employee health care benefits! What, taxing employee health care benefits was something that Obama attacked McCain for? Pssh, that was then, this is now – we’ve got a free market system to overturn!

So Remember Barack’s Economic Projections?

They’re just a teensy bit off. The economy is in fact doing worse than expected, which means that the people doing the projections aren’t taking everything into account – such as the number of people cutting back on their business due to spending and taxation concerns. Tell me again, why does he think European level social spending and taxation levels are going to give us an economy a couple points better than how we’ve been doing during the Bush years, rather than European level GDP growth?

Economic Signs Of Trouble

China is buying gold instead of U.S. Dollars. The days where they subsidized our inflation are ending. Sunday, meanwhile, was the earliest “Debt Day” ever. Transterrestrial has a useful video that helps explain what President Obama is trying to do about it.

If you’re paying attention just to the GDP, you might be a bit surprised about the amount of tax receipts we’ve been collecting over the past year. This is because people have been “going Galt” just from the effects of Pelosi and Reid, even without Obama. The economic data is there: higher taxes kill the incentives of productivity. Even Andrew Lloyd Weber agrees. Oh, and the latest example of liberal fascism: Government is going to own 89% of GM. Yes, fascism is alive and well even today, and no, it doesn’t necessarily mean racism, genocide, or jack booted thugs. There’s more to it than that, just as there was when it was called the New Deal.

More Damning Statistics For Democrat Economics

States that have high unemployment have high income taxes, unionization, or both. But honestly, with the overwhelming evidence of how countries economically grow relative to their taxes, anyone who’s still a believer in the Democrat’s economic plans isn’t going to change from one more study.

Zimbabwe Seizing Farms

Of white people who opposed the government.

Don’t think something like that could happen here? Step one: get government into so much debt that only hyperinflation and massive financial seizures can get us out. Step two: Drum up sentiment that rich people aren’t paying their fair share. Step three: increasing the steepness of progressive taxes to the point where seizing existing property is only the tiniest step from the existing tax code.

Hunh, we’re making pretty good progress on all of those steps, especially California.