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Senators propose 12-cent gas tax increase

CanadaJohn said:
Governments, however, appear to be incapable of this simple goal, which is why most conservatives resist strongly any attempts to increase taxes no matter how worthy the reported rationale.
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blame the voters too. they want everything they can get from government no matter what political side they are on.
 
Deuce said:
Gasoline taxes haven't increased (federally) since 1993. Roads haven't gotten cheaper.
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Which is why the asshole liar we have as POTUS now is once again on my ****list. He promised during campaign his first priority would be addressing our failing infrastructure. Instead of the Obamacare nightmare he could have actually kept one of his promises.
 
DaveFagan said:
How about a "Transaction Tax" on all stock, bond, commodities, hedges, loans, and all other financial instruments. The gas tax hits low income disproportionately. Time to cancel the one tenth of one percent "free ride" by the real welfare queens and freeloaders.
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disproportionately low income people are not the ones driving all the miles on the roads. why? because they can't afford to.

this is the same argument against the sales tax we pay.
 
Senators propose 12-cent gas tax increase
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won't happen. this is the worst time to propose the increase, too. one wonders what they were thinking, or what the discussions surrounding the proposal of this bill right before the fall election looked like..


i'm going to try to explain this calmly and rationally. :

Dear Senators,

here's how you get more money for roads :

1. stop with the global interventions when your own house is falling apart. perhaps that money might be better spent domestically, as there is not enough tax revenue currently to maintain our own roads.

2. look for new revenue streams. some might be controversial, like the legalization and taxation of marijuana, but not nearly as controversial as

****ING RAISING THE PRICE OF GAS WHEN EVERYONE IS SO ****ING PISSED OFF ABOUT THE PRICE OF GAS THAT WE HAVE TO TELL YOU IN BIG BOLDED CAPSLOCK LETTERS TO PROPERLY CONVEY THE FURY. ALSO THERE IS ****ING INSTABILITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST, AND YOUR CAMPAIGN DONOR BUDDIES ARE GAMBLING UP THE PRICE EVEN MORE WHILE WE DON'T GET RAISES. MIGHT WANT TO THINK OF ANOTHER STRATEGY, OR AT LEAST BETTER TIMING, ****ERS.

there, i think that's sufficiently sized for King George to read without his spectacles. (yes, i know that this sentiment cannot actually be attributed to John Hancock, but work with me here.)

Sincerely,

HELIX
 
Helix said:
won't happen. this is the worst time to propose the increase, too. one wonders what they were thinking, or what the discussions surrounding the proposal of this bill right before the fall election looked like..


i'm going to try to explain this calmly and rationally. :

Dear Senators,

here's how you get more money for roads :

1. stop with the global interventions when your own house is falling apart. perhaps that money might be better spent domestically, as there is not enough tax revenue currently to maintain our own roads.

2. look for new revenue streams. some might be controversial, like the legalization and taxation of marijuana, but not nearly as controversial as

****ING RAISING THE PRICE OF GAS WHEN EVERYONE IS SO ****ING PISSED OFF ABOUT THE PRICE OF GAS THAT WE HAVE TO TELL YOU IN BIG BOLDED CAPSLOCK LETTERS TO PROPERLY CONVEY THE FURY. ALSO THERE IS ****ING INSTABILITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST, AND YOUR CAMPAIGN DONOR BUDDIES ARE GAMBLING UP THE PRICE EVEN MORE WHILE WE DON'T GET RAISES. MIGHT WANT TO THINK OF ANOTHER STRATEGY, OR AT LEAST BETTER TIMING, ****ERS.

there, i think that's sufficiently sized for King George to read without his spectacles. (yes, i know that this sentiment cannot actually be attributed to John Hancock, but work with me here.)

Sincerely,

HELIX
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I love your passion,I'm 100% with you!!

Too bad the idiots in DC will never understand.:mrgreen:
 
mtm1963 said:
for the purpose of tax, road infrastructure.
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Also urban mass transit and goofy trains to nowhere nonsense. These mass transit systems are designed to operate at a loss, requiring permanent operational subsidies, after receiving massive subsidies to get them initially established.

How about a less than 10 mile rail system that costs (at least) $1.4 billion?

http://austinrailnow.wordpress.com/
 
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mtm1963 said:
disproportionately low income people are not the ones driving all the miles on the roads. why? because they can't afford to.

this is the same argument against the sales tax we pay.
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The truckers already pay more for diesel, the least refined product, and that is because of taxes. Alternatives. Eliminate Homeland Security. Eliminate the Energy Dept. because we don't have a realistic energy policy. Eliminate NSA. Downsize CIA and all other acronym intelligence agencies. No more wars. Get out of Ukraine, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. We are not there to "Poice" anybody, but for USA Corporate to profit handsomely. I vote Green, perhaps a wasted vote, but a real alternative. The Dem and Repub status quos have sucked for 50 years.
 
The government at all levels takes in enough money. We just to elect smarter people to spend it.
 
It's just an excuse to grab at more money, infrastructure is just an excuse. I highly highly doubt they would spend it on improvements and maintenance that needs to be made.
 
mtm1963 said:
if it is phased in over several years(3-4 cents per year), people will not notice.
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But don't you see the problem? You add a few pennies here, a few pennies there, a few pennies later on, yadda yadda, and pretty soon all those pennies add up to dollars and more dollars until the total tax burden is hindering prosperity and opportunity for millions. Meanwhile, the government just creates more and more bureaucracy and swallows up whole more and more of the taxes it collects just to feed itself. And it never seems to make a dent in the problem. We have a 17+ triillion dollar debt that is growing by billions every single day.

Don't you think it is time to step back and evaluate whether we have a revenue problem or a spending problem? Whether we have a revenue problem or a far more sinister permanent political class problem?
 
digsbe said:
It's just an excuse to grab at more money, infrastructure is just an excuse. I highly highly doubt they would spend it on improvements and maintenance that needs to be made.
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Just more lunch money for the gov, Digs...
 
mtm1963 said:
you have to maintain the roads/bridges we travel on.

what we need to do is to STOP building more of them and take care of the existing infrastructure.
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I totally agree, we have a proposal for anew highway in the works while our other highways/roads badly need repair.
The wear and tear on the vehicles the terrible roads are causing is becoming a problem also. So I don't mind paying a little more IF
they would actually fix the roads and not hijack the money for something else.
 
tres borrachos said:
The nasty Democrats who control the once great Live Free or Die state just raised our gas taxes. I've had enough.

Chris Murphy needs to drive around his state once in a while and see how high the CT gas prices already are. Dumbass.

Find the money from somewhere else.
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Heya TB
hello2.gif
Chicago Democrats.....said sorry. We don't like having to do it. We just can't roll back that Cook County temp tax. Nor can we just take away any other City Temp tax.

No we don't want to raise more property taxes. Well we shouldn't have promised that Toll Booth increase......but we figured to pick some of that back up due to people speeding in front of those cameras that we bought with your taxpayer money. We just forgot we weren't suppose to tell them where the cameras were located.

Naturally since we say so.....the Rest of the state will have to follow suit. Also some of you other states Right next to us. As we can't have our citizens all leaving here to go and spend money in your state due to it being cheaper there than here.

So you will have to raise taxes too.

Naturally our gas gone up a little with whats going on in Iraq. They figure it to go up some anyways. More than Likely all the Democrats here will jump in on this.
 
tres borrachos said:
The nasty Democrats who control the once great Live Free or Die state just raised our gas taxes. I've had enough.

Chris Murphy needs to drive around his state once in a while and see how high the CT gas prices already are. Dumbass.

Find the money from somewhere else.
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I noticed Republican Senator Corker from Tennessee was the other partner in this tax increase--how 'bout you.
And that the OP is from Tennessee and seems to support this gas tax.
Maybe Corker will be TEA-partied in 2016 .
 
clownboy said:
The only problem with this is the same one California and Oregon have. Raise the gas taxes to pay for road maintenance - people react by driving less and buying less gas - before too long the revenue generated drops and they need to raise the gas tax again. Rinse, repeat.

Not to mention it disproportionately affects the poor.
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If people drove less, then less worked needed to be done, in theory, as the wear and tear would reduce in proportion to the reduced miles driven.

Reduced miles is the *only* inherent goal of a tax on fuel. Taxes are disincentives.
 
penn1954 said:
I love your passion,I'm 100% with you!!

Too bad the idiots in DC will never understand.:mrgreen:
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Helix is generally a polite, rational, and peaceful creature. until he pulls up to the pump and it costs forty some bucks to fill up a Mini Cooper. in 2000, i was filling up a Jeep Wrangler for like fifteen bucks.

now, i understand that a gas tax is a user fee, and i'm ok with that to a point. however, i see some obvious ways in which we could reallocate the money that don't involve highly regressive taxes.

and then there's just the obvious complete mistake of the timing. during the planning and writing of the bill, no one said, "hey, this is an issue that makes people irrationally furious. perhaps we should do something else, or at least wait until after the election to spring it on them."

really? nobody suggested that?

really?
 
Helix said:
Helix is generally a polite, rational, and peaceful creature. until he pulls up to the pump and it costs forty some bucks to fill up a Mini Cooper. in 2000, i was filling up a Jeep Wrangler for like fifteen bucks.

now, i understand that a gas tax is a user fee, and i'm ok with that to a point. however, i see some obvious ways in which we could reallocate the money that don't involve highly regressive taxes.

and then there's just the obvious complete mistake of the timing. during the planning and writing of the bill, no one said, "hey, this is an issue that makes people irrationally furious. perhaps we should do something else, or at least wait until after the election to spring it on them."

really? nobody suggested that?

really?
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Don't feel bad Helix.....my boss went out and bought a Prius. He still spends the same amount of money driving around due to work. If not more this year.....having more work and farther to travel. Win some lose some.
 
mtm1963 said:
i am not against the tax increase on gas because its needed but what we need to do is to have all tax dollars go into the general fund to pay for the needs of the country in stead of having a tax to fund this or that(SS and medicare are other examples).

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Two senators unveiled a bipartisan plan Wednesday to raise federal gasoline and diesel taxes for the first time in more than two decades, pitching the proposal as a solution to Congress' struggle to pay for highway and transit programs.

The plan offered by Sens. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., would raise the 18.4-cents-a-gallon federal gas tax and 24.4-cents-a- gallon diesel tax by 12 cents each over the next two years, and then index the taxes to keep pace with inflation.

Yahoo!
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Autos with greater gas mileage = less tax revenue.
 
MMC said:
Don't feel bad Helix.....my boss went out and bought a Prius. He still spends the same amount of money driving around due to work. If not more this year.....having more work and farther to travel. Win some lose some.
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thank goodness i only have to commute sixty miles a day (there and back) for the next year. the other town where they actually hire scientists is fifty miles one way. i would have to use size 25 bolded capslock type instead of size 7 for that one.
 
This is what Americans pay now.

On average, as of April 2014, state and local taxes add 31.5 cents to gasoline and 31.0 cents to diesel, for a total US average fuel tax of 49.9 cents per gallon for gas and 55.4 cents per gallon for diesel

The United States federal excise tax on gasoline is 18.4 cents per gallon and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel fuel.
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Fuel taxes in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So 50 cents a gallon in taxes isn't already enough? Bring back the mighty V8!
 
Helix said:
thank goodness i only have to commute sixty miles a day (there and back) for the next year. the other town where they actually hire scientists is fifty miles one way. i would have to use size 25 bolded capslock type instead of size 7 for that one.
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Might want to pick up a snowmobile for the next several winters. Just sayin. :confused:
 
If only the gas tax actually WENT towards road maintenance.




Ah, one can dream...
 
When they come out next year, and if my shoulder will fit, I'm buying an Elio.
Most of my driving is to and from work five miles away. I don't need to do that in a 11mpg Jeep.
 
Gaius46 said:
Our transport infrastructure is in horrible condition. How do you propose to pay not only for badly needed repairs and future upkeep? Having those that use the infrastructure pay for it - and roughly in porportion to their use of it - seems fair to me.
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as gas goes up people slow down on their driving.
they don't go out as much they stay in it creates a drag on the economy.

the average gas price is about 6 cents higher. that 6 cents has cost the American economy 150m dollars. so theoretically a 12 cent increase would cost the American economy 300m dollars possibly.

that is 300m dollars that people and businesses don't have to spend.

it's always fair when it is someone else's money. I think we should look at the transportation budget and see what they are spending their money on. how many people are employeed and whether or not we can cut back on spending within the department itself and transfer those funds to projects.

this is also what happens when people drive more efficient cars. they buy less gas which means less tax revenue.
 
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