LaHood Wants To Tax The Miles You Drive, Obama Says No Way

[Nevada_Ballin]

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama on Friday rejected his transportation secretary's suggestion that the administration consider taxing motorists based on how many miles they drive instead of how much gasoline they buy.

"It is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters, when asked for the president's thoughts about Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood's suggestion, raised in an interview with The Associated Press a daily earlier.

Gasoline taxes that for nearly half a century have paid for the federal share of highway and bridge construction can no longer be counted on to raise enough money to keep the nation's transportation system moving, LaHood told the AP.

"We should look at the vehicular miles program where people are actually clocked on the number of miles that they traveled," the former Illinois Republican lawmaker said in the AP interview.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090221/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/lahood_vehicle_mileage_tax


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[resnor]

That would be ridiculous. Not to mention, it would hit rural areas harder, because there is far less public transportation...hitting rural areas would affect poor and middle class people...not exactly the way to stimulate the economy. What a brilliant idea that guy had.

[dsteve]

i heard about this and i dont think the government has anyright to know where you go and when..how much you drive etc. it violates a right to privacy and I would never let them put anything in my car that could be used as a tracking device.

[resnor]

Uh, dsteve, they ALREADY have that in your car...it's called an ODOMETER. When you register your vehicle every year, they put down your current mileage. All that they would need to do would be to put a tax in place so that when you register, they look at your current mileage, compare it to last year's mileage, and then multiply the difference in the two by the tax rate.

[dsteve]

they were talking about adding an addtional device to the car.

[Codeman]

i heard about this and i dont think the government has anyright to know where you go and when..how much you drive etc. it violates a right to privacy and I would never let them put anything in my car that could be used as a tracking device.On Star, they no everything you do they can even hear what you are saying... kinda scary. they can even do it with your cell phone.

[bk1998]

Uh, dsteve, they ALREADY have that in your car...it's called an ODOMETER. When you register your vehicle every year, they put down your current mileage. All that they would need to do would be to put a tax in place so that when you register, they look at your current mileage, compare it to last year's mileage, and then multiply the difference in the two by the tax rate.

This post made me laugh.

[dsteve]

On Star, they no everything you do they can even hear what you are saying... kinda scary. they can even do it with your cell phone.



yeah but you have the option of putting that in your car...what i heard about was government issued.