Redstate...
Obama has Green
Dreams of Car Taxes
Posted by Ben Howe
Friday, May 6th
As Tabitha Hale noted yesterday, there seems to be no shortage of ways
that this administration and the Democrat party can think of to tax
away every bit of our nation’s prosperity. But the “car tax”
simply defies logic and begs the question, “What are they thinking?”
Aside from their apparent love of taxation, what is the underlying
reason this administration would want to levy more taxes on America’s
driving? Environmentalism? Money for infrastructure
investment? Justify more hires at the IRS?
Actually, it’s because the treasury is starting to lose money. In
a glaring oversight about how taxing behavior works, the administration
seems to believe that taxing driving will increase revenues as opposed
to simply decreasing driving. As Steve Maley pointed out today,
it’s not as though the Democrats are in favor of doing much to bring
the cost of oil down and the administration is no different. In
fact, part of their hope had originally been that higher gas prices
would encourage the pursuit of more fuel efficient vehicles and of
course green technology has played a huge role in every energy decision
the Obama administration has made. Whether they addressed the
fact that lower gas consumption would result in lower revenues is hard
to say. They could very well have assumed a tax of this nature
would address that problem. Either way, here we are, revenues
going down, and of course the government can’t get more efficient as
cars do, so we are expected to pick up the tab.
One thing is certain, this is not good for the lower and middle classes
of America. Hybrid and electric cars are already more expensive
than regular cars. As such, not only would poor people have the
increased cost of gasoline, which President Obama seems to be offering
no indication he will do anything about, as well as the gas taxes that
already exist and take as much as $0.70 per gallon already, but now
they will need to pay an additional tax for simply driving the car at
all. One assumes that the high political cost of taxing the poor
on such a basic necessity will introduce new progressive tax
legislation that more than likely will exempt that same percentage of
Americans that don’t pay income taxes from this newest burden as well.
But that will not shield the administration from all political cost
when implementing a driving tax. President Obama risks isolating
and angering the segment of the population he is most dependent on for
re-election in 2012. The vaunted swing states may not take kindly
to having to dig deeper into their pockets during a recession.
This is a big problem when job one is reconnecting with them:
From Politico:
Democratic officials are intently focused on three states that Obama
won last time – Virginia, Colorado and Nevada – that provide different
paths to victory as an alternative to the traditional dependence on
Ohio and Florida.
Nevada is a traditional swing state whereas Colorado and Virginia had
histories of going GOP until Obama made the scene. It seems an
odd time to be testing the patience of voters while simultaneously
vowing to “focus” on them.
And what of people that drive for a living? Truck drivers, realtors,
and salesmen would all be affected. City and country government
costs would go up unless they are exempt which would be equally
infuriating to the public. I foresee a series of waivers and tax
credits further confusing our already confused tax code in order to
give favors out to those that the Democrats want to excuse from
punishment.
I’ve long said that the best way for tax reform to take hold in the
national dialogue is for everyone to have to pay their taxes themselves
as opposed to having them withheld. The government has been very
clever for years to hold people’s anger at bay by hiding these taxes:
withholdings on paychecks, the payroll tax which creates the illusion
that it’s paid by the employer (when in actuality we calculate that
when determining your salary), or the gas taxes which are rolled right
into the total with no differentiation between gas and tax. These
are ways to create an out of sight, out of mind mentality among the
electorate. I’m not sure yet how this administration thinks that
they can pull this off with how closely the public keeps an eye on the
cost of driving their car.
I’ll be surprised if this car tax happens before 2012 given the
political cost associated. However, President Obama has shown in
the past his desire to punish American’s to fulfill his green
dreams. If he wins in 2012, all bets are off.
Read it at Redstate
|
