Held Prisoner in Hampton Roads

Stupid is . . .
. . . as stupid does

- Forrest Gump, 1994

Barry O and his minions want to spend $556 billion over the next six years on transportation, but don’t have the money. Comes now Sen. Kent Conrad (a Democrat, of course) suggesting the “practical option” of taxing drivers based on the miles they drive.

Once considered infeasible, we now have electronic metering and billing on electricity, natural gas, mobile phone usage – and about anything else that can be attached to a transponder.

The Congressional Budget Office says that it is now possible to install equipment, either original equipment or retrofit, that can track mileage and report it to fixed infrastructure.

Then, presumably to the tax man.

Kenny Conrad is giddy with excitement.

Sayeth Kenny, "Do we move to some kind of an assessment that is based on how many miles vehicles go, so that we capture revenue from those who are going to be using the roads who aren't going to be paying any gas tax, or very little, with hybrids and electric cars?"

If this prelude hasn’t painted a picture of stupidity in action, then either my words are lacking or you aren’t paying attention.

Consider the duplicity of a government that invokes standards to require vehicles to have improved gas mileage, and then increases your taxes because those same standards reduced its revenue.

And what of the gasoline tax?

If vehicle performance is measured in miles per gallon, and the gasoline tax is measured in cents per gallon, then third grade math undeniably demonstrates that said tax is calculated as cents per mile.

So, we now have a mileage tax, and Kenny wants ANOTHER mileage tax that is simply calculated using different technology?

Beyond that, we have transponders in our cars that report how far we drive, where we drive, and conceivably, where we are at any given time.

Torches and pitchforks have been brought forth for less.

Thankfully, Barry O has disavowed this strategy. He may be incompetent, but he is not stupid.

Except that he has not yet embraced the concept that we need to cut spending rather than increase taxes.

2012 is closer each day.