A Bump In The Gasoline Tax -- Deadly, In Any Guise

Sorry, but I'm going to call bullshit on this one, at least in quite a few cases.

When I was medically discharged from the Navy, I moved to a home that my grandfather left me when he died. The home was a few minutes away from my first post-Navy newspaper. Everything was fine...in 1998.

But now my job is much farther away.

Now before you say take a job closer to home or move closer to my job, I'll stop you right there. The job I have actually pays me enough to keep my home, and there is no way (no matter what beer your drink or what drugs you take) abandoning my mortgage four years in to save on gas money would make a lick of sense.

And unless and until you've ever lived in what really is the urban sprawl of Houston and the suburbs, you simply don't have a legitimate clue on this issue.

 

AA, I certainly wasn't talking about you. I'm talking about the people who decided to buy the 3,500 square-foot house 45-90 minutes from their job instead of the 2,000 sq. footer 20-30 minutes away.

I was visiting friends in St. Louis recently. They hosted a cookout for their St. Louis friends. All of them lived "out in the county" rather in the city. Two of them had 45 minute commutes to work and they were the ones complaining the most about gas prices.

 

Inky...I have co-workers who do the same, commuting over an hour, sometimes. And it bugs the hell out of me.

But urban sprawl is a reality, and gas prices aren't going to fix it. Gas prices are only going to make many other things worse.

 

Compared to Europe, our gas is virtually tax-free. But if gas stays at or above $4 a gallon for the duration, the mere act of even proposing a gas tax increase would be political seppuku.

 

He probably doesn't have the proof, but Democratic president + Democratic Congress = massive tax hikes. See "Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993" for more details.

 

F_B...I don't deny the logic in what you say. But for the nth time, I and virtually all Americans don't care how it's done in Europe. Circumstances are so different here, it simply isn't a fair comparison.

 

Hard to say. If Obama has a "free hand" with a friendly Congress, brace for even more taxes for this. Which I clearly do not understand because gas (and food) taxes are the most regressive of all. They hurt the rich the least.

I now live 2.9 miles from work and less than 2 miles from just about all of the shopping/parks/recreation/church that I need to visit. All in all, I could make it on about 70-80 miles a week, not including any road trips. If it's at $2 or $4 a gallon, it won't affect me that much. At $4 a gallon, it's about $9 a week for me. With more items now expensive, I just shop at Aldi and don't eat out nearly as much as before.

Yet I feel for my co-workers who live 30 or 40 miles from work. They are the ones who have to make the real financial decisions on whether to stay where they are.

I believe *that* will be where the bargains will be for real estate. Places that are 30-40 miles (not miles, but miles) from central city/downtown areas because who will want to live there unless they clear six figures or have super low debt.

 

Nope.

But I've been reading between the lines in these scenarios for a long, long time, and some prominent libs have been floating this trial balloon for months, now.
I'm convinced they'll go for it, and early, in the '09 legislative session. It's the worst kind of liberalspeak, but this one's going to be hard to stop.

Best spin I can put on it myself is that it'll generate a ton of tax revenue, which would help the weakened dollar (thanks, Fredo, you dolt).
But the sheer regressiveness of it still makes it repulsive, in my mind.

Which is one reason why I remain a GDI. Hate seeing either side get too cocky.

 

Expect to hear more about nationalizing our oil fields once Obama gets into the White House as well. Maxine Waters has been talking about it for awhile and Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) came out in favor of it yesterday.

Normally you could shrug off some no-name congressman saying this but he's a member of he Appropriations Committee.

Feat not comrades, the DNC has your best interests at heart...

 

Waters has always been a nightmare. Even when she's right, it's typically for the wrong reasons (a fatal personal flaw, one Fredo himself has long acted out in public).

This would be insane public policy. Fortunately, Waters is not the one running for POTUS.

 

But she's a Democrat and we know they all share the same brain! /a_qb

 

More regressive blather, from another corner:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06212008/news/regionalnews/tax_hiker_mikes_foul_gas_odor_116510.htm

From the guy who got his regressive NYC-congestion-taxing slant shoved back in his face by Albany, another haughty high-handed slap at the working man by a now-desperate politico
who can't run for MONYC again, and who is desperate to remain in the public policymaking eye. Pathetic . . . and trust me, you haven't seen the last of the pressure for this nonsense
from limo libs.